Mr. Hublot

MR. HUBLOT is a nominee for the Best Animated Short Subject for its year and it is an interesting and amusing silent cartoon. Judging by the movie's title, its makers are fans of Jacques Tati and his Monsieur Hulot.

Although Mr. Hublot -- the character, not the film -- lacks the slapstick skills which underlay Tati's films -- and hence is a little too serious to be terribly amusing with his realistically detailed agoraphobia and obsessive compulsive behavior -- the film's basic good story and its technically proficient animation certainly help maintain interest throughout. I greatly enjoyed the film, without feeling it should win the Oscar.

I've heard some Oscar prognosticators say that the Academy might eschew the obvious (Disney's "Get a Horse!") and vote for this seemingly more original piece. Frankly, I didn't think it was all that original. It's a pretty basic animated short and isn't anywhere near as clever as "Get a Horse!" It's nice, though, and great to look at. A man in a futuristic, mechanical world notices a robot dog that has been abandoned outside his apartment. He adopts it, but it starts to grow too large for his home. As cute as dog stories are (my favorite animated short last year, by far, was "Adam and Dog"), my main thought about this one is "It's a robot dog. Why is it growing?" Still, this was the only one that garnered applause from the audience with which I saw it.

'MR. HUBLOT': Four Stars (Out of Five)

One of the five 2014 Oscar nominated animated short film is this 11 minute sci-fi tale, about an introvert scared of the outside world (in the future) who brings a robot dog into his home and has his life drastically changed by it (for the first time). It was directed by Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares and written by Witz. The short contains no voice actors as Hublot (the only human character) never speaks. I definitely found it to be one of the best nominees (for animated short this year) and felt like it's something the filmmakers could easily expand on in multiple more movies. Witz and Espigares do a great job of creating an entire new futuristic universe (for just an 11 minute short) and I really liked the simple tale of a shy insecure guy finding happiness with a friend for the first time (reminds me of the bond I have with my cat). Definitely worth seeing!

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Its impossible to mention, "Mr. Hublot" without naming the creator of those absolutely brilliant 3D characters. Well, *almost* impossible, as I have not read a single review of the film where the creator was, in fact, mentioned.

The denizens of "Mr Hublot" were invented and physically created by the genius Belgian artist, Stephane Halleux and pre-dated the film itself!

His absence in all of the film's reviews is most odd, since when the film had won 'Best Animated Short' at the Academy Award, it was Mr. Halleux himself who had graciously (and most deservedly) accepted the award in 2013.

The entire film is based upon his fantastic creations- their iconically quirky and unique Steampunk design. There would be no film without them. Unlike most all animated films, the characters are created for the film itself and did not exsist until the fulm was produced. But here, Mr. Halleux's characters were already physically created and it was their design that begged the need for an animated movie.

Ultimately, the fact that his name never comes up in the reviews is disturbing. Its like giving an Academy Award to "Fantasia" and not mentioning that it was Walt Disney who had created Mickey Mouse.

This shirt is completely deserving of the Oscar it won. The animation is out of this world and the twist ending give it a nice, satisfying wrap up of the whole story.