Ward 13

Be prepared for a wild quarter hour of animated mayhem! This will wear you out as we follow a patient who has just been brought to one strange and evil hospital.

This bizarre animated short features dogs with two heads, boxes of "slime," and a bunch of other things that all resemble someone having their worst nightmare. This is indeed, "the hospital from hell," where Dr. Frankensteins are running amok creating hostile monsters.

If you want more ideas how sick this humor is, just sample the pharmacy that our poor patient finds himself in after he escapes from his first bad encounter with some mad man. In the PX, are, "Pain Enhancement Pills, Essence Of Panda, Jelly Babesw (with 5 percent crack), Ebola virus, human growth hormones (make in China), Niagra laxatives (go with the flow) and rhinoceros dose strength pills. After he takes one of the latter, he sees on the back of vial: "danger - excessive dosage may cause brain to explode")." He stuffs the pills in his pants and takes more as the story evolves.

At every turn is either a demented doctor or patient waiting to do our guy in, but he fights back like Rambo. This has to be seen to be believed! In addition to the high-energy story, high production values, good claymation and artwork at times make this animation short stunning.

Maybe it's because I'm such a big fan of both horror and animated films, but in my eyes this was one of the best animated short films I've seen so far. And I've seen a lot of them because I usually don't miss one single episode of the short film festival specials in German tv. It was well animated and synchronized, the grunts sounds of the "Jason" character are hilarious. So are the fighting scenes and the wheelchair chase. That is exactly what I missed in Wallace and Gromit, the good old violence shown with a big smile. I hope it runs again soon, I have to own that for my VCR. I hope the team that made this one brings out another, longer animated film of this quality. I'll go see it, in case it's as funny as this.

The titular Ward is either the psycho ward where our hapless hero believes he is beset by an army of sadistic doctors and orderlies, or it's the worst hospital since Roger Rabbit checked into St. Nowhere in Tummy Trouble. It's an impressive effort with some very nice staging of the endless succession of fight sequences, and some flashes of brilliance, but they don't overcome the repetitiveness of the film.

For some reason The Internet Movie Database requires 10 lines of text, and I pride myself on my brevity. I like to keep my comments brief and to the point and I would think that would be a positive thing for the readers of The Internet Movie Database. So, either this will be posted as is, or somebody at The Internet Movie Database will read it and perhaps consider my plea. After all, I am probably not the first reviewer to post too short a comment.

Wow! This film is an adrenaline rush of a movie with unrelenting action and thrills...and it's all claymation! This might be the best short film I've ever seen, or at least my own personal favorite (and I've seen a lot of films). It has the energy and fun of a glorious Sam Raimi film (Evil Dead II to be more exact) and sinks its hooks into you with the first shot. The first time I saw this film, I was filled with glee as I couldn't believe what I was watching. Cheers to the director and all who worked on this film (those crazy Australians!). Seriously though, find a way to watch this film and you won't be sorry!! Simply amazing.

The qualities of this little animated gem obviously remind me of Aardvark Studio's work : the same efficient use of plasticine for round-shaped and exquisitely expressive characters, the sense of humour and irony within a specific genre, and the constant cinematographic references. Here, it is the horror film that is spoofed, with an inclination toward the "hospital horror" sub-genre. But it is never done to the detriment of the rhythm or of a strong story line : the humour within the fear is always sharp and witty, and the director even winks at Nick Park's specific work with a chase in the hospital hallways that is clearly an hommage to the chase between Gromit and the penguin in The Wrong Trousers. With such impressive skills, I don't really worry about Peter Cornwell's future : it looks bright.