The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

In comparison, Dimanche (2011) currently has a score of 6.3, a point and a half less than this one's 7.8. I give this 7, and Dimanche 8. Anything less than 7 is quite harsh for either one.

(I'm not saying Dimanche should win the Oscar... just that I reviewed it here first, before coming to this one, and was shocked at the difference.)

This is a good film, to be sure. It's seemingly simple, straightforward, and computer-animated. It has references to the The Wizard of Oz (1939). It has all the bells and whistles.

But when you get right down to it, there's really not a whole lot there. It reminds me of Hugo (2011) in that respect, which I thought was also good, but the people who hand out awards seem to think is some kind of masterpiece.

It's immediately out of date. Books don't come on paper so much any more. They fly on electromagnetic waves from router to tablet. Even the fax or modem connection sound at the beginning is out-of-date. The internet is always on, and it's silent.

Flying books? Isn't that from the intro to "Amazing Stories" (1985)? And we've seen the idea that reading things keeps stories alive in Die Unendliche Geschichte (1984).

Is a life lived without leaving a book implied to be worthless?

I think I know what this short wants to be telling me, but what it actually is telling me is not real clear.

I saw it many times. And each time was the first and it remains the one. Because it is real, real, real ic or magnificent are fair terms about it. Because the stories , from so many sources, so well crafted one bz one are the precious gift of an remarkable director and his admirable team. special animation. Because it is soft, delicate, gentle and wise definition of life. Because it is the poem and refuge and tea cup who zou deserve in profound sense. So, mag

I found this 15 minutes movie totally by chance, as I was browsing the blog of a Portuguese books lover. I started watching the movie and I was immediately charmed. An old friend of mine came to my mind: a friendship of some sixty years.

I was five or six, he was fifteen or sixteen by that time. An aunt of him was living together with us and he was visiting her very often. I was just opening my eyes to the world, and the world was immense and full of unknowns, so no wonder I had lots of questions. He was taking time to listen to my questions and to give answers. It was about anything one could imagine, about pirates and about explorers, about the North Pole and the South Pole, and about seas and oceans, about hunting exotic animals, and about what job to take when I would grow up.

After two years or so I started going to school, and he entered the University. He began to pass some books of him to me, as I remember it was firstly The Wizard of Oz, then some books by Jules Verne and Nikolay Nosov. A book about volcanoes followed, and then a book written by Sven Hedin about his travels all over the world.

Years have passed, each of us was following his ways, while both sharing the passion for books. Sometimes we were meeting in a used books store, each browsing some old French book, or some album of old photos. Sometimes I was visiting him, some other times he was returning the visit. Each time it was a book that was coming in our discussion. When I left for America we met and he showed me three books he was reading somehow in parallel, about the American ways and about immigrant experience there.

After many years I came back and our friendship was no more the same. Maybe because both of us were old now, maybe because of lack of time, or because of lack of enthusiasm, or a bit of all these. Anyway our last meeting brought the subject of books again, only this time to punctuate disagreements. I was now using intensively the web and the electronic books, while for him only the printed books had sense, nothing else.

This was a couple of years ago. We tried to meet again, but each time it was something impeding it. We called each other by phone several times, then this stopped too. Life went on and electronic books became more and more sophisticated, advancing from desktops and laptops to tablets, while printed books remained the same, more and more forgotten on shabby shelves.

I called him again today, after watching the movie: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore tells a story about printed books, about their pages, full of words and images, about living surrounded by books, dreaming while browsing the pages till you get lost in their stories. It's about love for the printed word, and about the way the printed word returns your love. A movie about the aggressiveness of electronic books, acting like a hurricane, destroying the spirit of words and of images, and about the way to reconstruct the lost spirit. All this in an animation, in the form of a story for kids, a fantasy taking place in an atmosphere reminding sometimes The Wizard of Oz , maybe also a bit Le Ballon Rouge (while the hero somehow resembles Buster Keaton).

Ironically, the story is based on a book that can be read now on laptops and on tablets, browsing the electronic pages and inviting the reader to play interactively.

And I called my friend to tell him about all this, and I said that I would dedicate this text to him and to his love for the printed book, only he wouldn't be able to read it: the text is on the web.

I have seen some spectacular animation over the years. I love good animation. I'm crazy about great animation. But I can safely say that The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is the only animated short that I have ever seen that made me cry. If you have lived your life with books, as I have, you will be drawn into this world. In fact if you are a book person this IS your world.

The protagonist, Morris Lessmore, is heavily influenced by Buster Keaton. The scenes of the storm were a combination of the storm sequences of Steamboat Bill jr. and the 1939 Wizard of Oz and the all too real hurricane Katrina (the story opens in Louisiana and the studio that shot it, Moonbot, is located there). After the remarkable devastation Lessmore is saddened to witness the devastation around him. One of the great tragedies is that the storm swept the letters off the pages. Wandering along Lessmore spots a beautiful woman carried aloft on flying books tethered with ribbons. She casts one to Lessmore. The animated Humpty Dumpty pulls the protagonist into a world of enchanted books.

Anyone who loves books can tell you there's nothing fanciful here. Of course books have wings! Of course they enable us to fly. If you don't believe me then shut off your computer now and grab a book. And when you meet Mr. Morris Lessmore give him my regards.

Like most other teenage bookworms in the 2000s decade, my first love was Harry Potter, not a guy named Harry Potter (!) but JK Rowling's literary magnum opus. I must have read the longest part Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (almost eight hundred pages in length) not less than seven times. For any normal teen like me, fantasy was a wonderful diversion from the usual drab studies. It was the first time I had begun really caring for a character, and not just caring, but supporting, emphasizing and rooting for him. Later, my mind opened by itself and I penned a novella in my little diary at the age of thirteen which unfortunately was misplaced. I remember being disappointed with the way I ended it abruptly, but that isn't the point. The point is that I wrote something original and I am absolutely proud of it, and what brought this creative drive in me were the precious Harry Potter books.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a luminous display of the director's personal vision – to show how integral books are in developing a person's life. Our protagonist, Mr. Morris Lessmore is a bibliophile who enjoys writing in his diary while sitting cozily in the balcony with just books surrounding him. Suddenly, a mighty hurricane wrecks the entire town and all the material possessions of Mr. Morris and the other citizens are destroyed. What our leading man has is just the diary in his hand but the words have been rubbed out. In this dark period, Morris wanders miserably till he is captivated by a beautiful lady who is soaring high in the air with flapping books around her. Her dress has words written all over it and she looks exultant. A Humpty Dumpty book leads Mr. Morris to a huge library filled with books, and not plain books, but living and breathing ones. Mr. Morris, who has lost nearly everything in the hurricane, now devotes all his time to books. In this process, not only is he able to bring back happiness and a true sense of satisfaction in his life, but he also starts penning a novel and pledges to help the lives of other unfortunate souls by lending them books.

What makes Fantastic Flying Books such a joyous watch is the beautiful manner in which director William Joyce brings books to life. The entire story itself feels like a tale said by a mother to her young child at night – the opening scene takes us into a book with the film's title. The contrast before and after the natural calamity is shown colors – while the initial scene is in color, the latter moment is shown in black and white. Also, colors begin reentering Mr. Morris' life only with the arrival of the books; his life comes alive after this. An ironic thing to be noted is that the same books that infuse life in its readers are typed in black and white.

Even with the advancing technology and changing cultures, our books are trying hard to stay relevant. We have book readers, IPads and software to read online. Also, many classics like Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights, Gone with the Wind etc are getting a makeover with bolder covers to appeal to this generation. I say it's a good thing but it is only in our hands to include or reject books from our lives. But everyone should give this short film a chance – its beautiful, poignant and thought provoking.