Interesting art style and a tad exploitative

This is the day before the Oscars are announced for 2008 and I just got back from a special screening by our local film society of all five films nominated in the category of Best Animated Short Film. This film was among the five and I'm going to review all five and make my prediction. Time will tell if I am right about the latter.

In 1969, when he was still with the Beatles, John Lennon allowed a young fan to meet with him and audiotape their interview. In 2007, an animated film was made using this interview. Right away, the style of this film sure got my attention. Although it was all made in black and white, it looked strongly inspired from the animation from the film YELLOW SUBMARINE and perhaps the Beatles album cover for "Revolver". This retro style was far from pretty (actually, rather ugly compared to the other nominees), but was fitting for the film. Fancier animation probably wouldn't have been as effective, though I wonder how the same animation would have worked if done in color.

As for the interview itself, most of it sounded very familiar. John's discussing war, peace and non-violent resistance was pure Lennon circa 1969. Much of it was rather profound--noting that the people are responsible for war and our leaders since we pick them and that within us all there is a bit of Jesus and a bit of Hitler! The film had one part, though, that bothered me. When Lennon was talking about war, several times the images on the screen appeared to be George W. Bush. Considering that Lennon has been dead for decades, using his words as an attack on a specific person just seemed wrong--even if permission to make the film was obtained from his widow. Heck, considering his politics, I assume Lennon would have been strongly against Bush--but since we can't ask Lennon his permission to use his words this way, it's all disconcerting and seemingly exploitative.

Still, aesthetically speaking, it's an interesting film that was the weakest the nominees. I don't think it has much chance to win the Oscar unless the committee wants to make a political statement and ignore better films (and there is some precedent for this in the past).

2/24/08--The Oscar was just announced and the winner in this category was PETER & THE WOLF.

The animated illustration of a 14-year-old's interview with John Lennon in 1969.

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