The Gruffalo

The only problem I have with these beautifully drawn, British animated shorts, like The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom is that they seem to me a bit too long for shorts. This wonderful tale was slightly better than Room on the Broom, thou. Searching for The Gruffalo's Child right away!

As a parent of small kids I get used to watching films multiple times on DVD. Thankfully this one stands up to repeat viewings. I did wonder how a 5 minute book could be stretched to nearly half an hour, but the makers have added plenty of little details that, while not adding to the overall story, do expertly complement it.

The CGI woodland scenery looks fantastic - I'm not normally won over by 'graphics' but it really adds charm - and is supported by a brilliant musical score. As the dialogue (with the exception of some of the squirrel lines) follows the book, there isn't a huge amount. But what is there is done with personality and is memorable.

For those that don't know the story, its a simple but clever tale filled with imagination and bound to appeal to young kids and adults with a playful imagination.

Recommended.

Before a mouse goes for wander in the forest to find a nut, he fails to consider that he is just about bite-size for most of it's other dwellers. There's a snake, an owl - who does seem to find it quite difficult to fly in a straight line, and a ferocious fox. Perhaps he has read "1001 Nights" though, because when faced with becoming sandwich fodder, he conjures up an image for each of them of this great and menacing monster. This does the trick until, well guess who he meets amongst the trees? This is a simple story that lends itself well to some endearing and characterful stop-motion animation. It's all in their eyes! The narrative offers us the perspective of an innocent child as we explore and the mouse improvises, often humorously, to escape his tricky predicaments. It's an half an hour that is easy to watch and I did quite enjoy it.

I enjoyed this short film quite a bit, though of all the films nominated for Best Animated Short this year, I think it and "Let's Pollute" have the least chance of winning the Oscar. We'll see--the winner is to be announced next week.

The film is odd because it's is a story within a story. It begins with a mother squirrel (Helena Bonham Carter...who, incidentally, doesn't seem that squirrelly to me) almost being caught by a bird of prey. She scrambles into her nest and tells her children a story about a mouse and when he was captured by predators--and how the clever mouse escapes.

The film is extremely cute and enjoyable. However, the character animation seemed only fair--and compared to many other CGI films of the last few years it does not compare well. This does not detract horribly from enjoying the film and the film's backgrounds are quite nice. All in all, I have no other negatives about it other than the character design and I am sure young kids will love it.

UPDATE: I was surprised, but just moments ago I saw that "The Lost Thing" won the Oscar for Best Animated Short. To me, this was a surprise!

It's even better than the book. This is everything that 'Where the Wild Things Are' should have been, but wasn't.

The animation style is interesting, and I just love the dialogue and voice acting. We have a four year old, and he just loves this film. At about a half-hour, it's not too long for kids that can't sit through an hour or longer movie without getting disinterested.

The music is beautiful as well. Very memorable and peaceful.

If you have a little one, I recommend this film - it's one of those 'kid' films that is just as fun for the parents to watch, thanks to all the little nuances put into it (like how every living thing except the mouse gets put through the food chain).