Paperman

'PAPERMAN': Five Stars (Out of Five)

A Disney animated short film (that debuted in theaters before 'WRECK-IT RALPH') that tells the story of a New York office worker (sometime in the mid-20th century) who falls for a woman he just met, on his way to work, and is drawn to her through paper (paper airplanes to be more specific). It was directed by first time director John Kahrs (who's other film experience has been in the animation department for Disney animated features) and written by Clio Chiang and Kendelle Hoyer (the duo also worked on the script for Disney's 2011 'WINNIE THE POOH' animated feature). It's a black-and-white short and combines traditional hand-drawn animation with computer animation. I absolutely loved the film; it's about as good a short film as I've ever seen (live action or animated)! It's so emotionally moving and beautifully magical that I have to admit I got a little teary eyed. At 7 minutes it's hard to rate in comparison with feature length films, so to say this is one of the best movies I've seen all year might be an overstatement, but it's definitely one of the best shorts I've ever seen!

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Emotion can be hard to convey to audiences in a short film. Due to the limited time and animation (or filming) that must be put into the story, it can consume the whole life of the story. But somehow, the crew that put this short movie together, obviously knew how they would construct it in such a manner that it would not only contain emotion, but every kind of emotion that is the basis for many other complex feelings.

The story of "paperman" is about a young gentleman who finds the girl of his dreams whom he just happens to run into by fate at a local train station. During the brief time he spends awkwardly hanging around the confident female, he ends up making a connection with her because of a gust of wind that happened to blow one his papers into her face. From there, he realizes the girl had planted a smooch mark on his paper. Awww, how adorable!

But because, like everyone else, time moves on she catches her train leaving the gentleman behind, hoping he would see her again. Little does he realize that he will see her very soon. Because everyone knows it's a small world after all right? And I'll leave it there, otherwise I'll be describing the whole movie to you. But in this minute and a half worth that I described, builds up a lot of emotion that is absolutely heartwarming. Just the introduction will display, timidness, humor and regret in that short amount of time. As the story continues, you will see hopefulness, frustration, disappointment and joy. And boy does it have a satisfying ending.

And the ordered display of emotions is just the beginning. The people who animated this film did an amazing job. The background and characters look like drawings but they also look 3D as well which creates a surreal but nostalgic feel of the story. Plus, to make the film feel even more retro, the crew decided to keep the film black and white except for the female's ruby red lipstick that's planted on the man's office paper. This allows the audience to focus more on what connects these two characters together.

Also, the way the characters are constructed, physically, may be slightly disproportionate to the normal human being but my oh my are they one of the cutest couple of lovebirds I've seen on the screen in a long time. Sure, the gentleman is lanky but that creates the sense that he's like any other average Joe. The one thing I found that stood out the most on the girl were her eyes. I can see why the guy had to take a second glance at the girl. Her eyes were an eye grabber for him. The girl just has a really sweet looking face.

Finally, what truly finished off this short film on a strong note was the music produced by composer Christophe Beck. To be honest, I wasn't quite sure how Beck was going to present the music for this story. After producing various action and comedy scores like RED (2010) and The Hangover (2009), I wasn't sure if I could trust Beck's ability to give out such whole hearted product. But he did here, no doubt. The music is partially what facilitates the emotions that are being evoked throughout the film and it really works. On a side note though, it almost resembles Adam Young's style of electro-pop (Owl City) like music. I'm curious if that inspired Beck.

Now, here's why I can't give this short 10 stars like I wanted to. The first is because it creates a false sense of life. Unfortunately, not every person's life is like this, where they meet the person of their dreams so suddenly. The film made me wish that life was like that for everyone. That's what is so disappointing about the story. These kinds of occurrences hardly every happen. If they did happen, the world would be so much happier!

The other reason why I can't give it full credit is because it is a short film and a real story cannot expand to only 7 minutes long. Plus, I have fallen in love with these two characters and I really hope that the producers decide to create a movie about these two lovers. That's something I'd definitely be up to see because this couple is unbeatable when it comes to love!

As probably one of the few short films that I think needed this much credit and justification for its credit, it definitely deserves it. Paperman is so sweet that the audience will beg to see a movie made from this story.

Oscar nominated, this short film is a simple story of two people who have a chance meeting only for fate to intervene to ensure it is more than just that. As such it has the potential to be corny and therefore hard to care about, but it manages to be quite touching. The plot stretches a bit with the paper planes essentially coming to life rather than just being a device but this was the only place where it pushed me. The sight of the main guy being held in his seat by the planes didn't really work for me and I would have preferred a bit more of a "passive" device (eg I preferred the woman's interaction with her plane) but mostly I went with it because I was into the short film.

This engagement was achieved by the delicate touches provided in the music and the animation, both of which are excellent. Without so much as a word the film unfolds in mostly black and white and it has a great look to it – I have seen people posting screenshots from this film and some of them are beautiful enough to hang. The music plays in the background and resists the urge to overegg the material so it never feels like it is being used to guide your emotions in a cynical or undeserving manner. It takes you where you know it will go but the manner in which it does it is charming and pleasing; it will not have you in tears but it is delicate, charming and ultimately sweet and that is quite the achievement in a wordless 7 minute animation.

This film starts from a paper flying to a man. With a wind causing by a train passing, one of the paper a woman is holding fly and hit him. After returning it, another paper which the man is holding flies and hits her face. Since it hits her face, this paper has kiss mark on it. The man can't forget about her. While he is working in his office, he finds her in the building opposite across the road. Then the man tries to make her turn to him so he throws hundreds of planes made by papers. None of them reaches her so the man is getting sad. But with suddenly the paper planes start to fly again and these planes is going to lead this story to a dramatic ending. It's a simple story but makes the viewer happy. The music played in this film made me feel so excited.

Paperman is shown before Wreck-It Ralph. It looks and feels like an elaborate daydream, and even features a story not unlike the wish- fulfillment fantasies that compose our most wonderful daydreams. Like our wish-fulfillment fantasy though, it is pretty simple and cheesy, but that's perhaps the very point of this short (and I can appreciate that). Its animation is breathtaking and you really have to watch it just to appreciate how great it is. It fills you with that wonder you felt when you watched amazing animation for the first time. I definitely recalled feeling that feeling when I first saw Toy Story when I was 4.

Wonderful short to play before Wreck-It Ralph (which plays more like a CRAZY, elaborate dream). Like Wreck-It Ralph, it's destined to be remember for a long, long time.