The Dam Keeper

The Dam Keeper is my choice for the best of the animated shorts and I think the quality difference between this and the rest of the films is pretty obvious. Like The Bigger Picture, this one has the look of a painting--which is quite unusual for an animated film. But the paintings are of a much higher quality and there is an amazing artistry that set this one apart---it just looks great. While the style isn't quite as lush as Petrov's style (but whose is?!), it is gorgeous and the filmmakers, Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi, used over 8000 paintings to make this short film. The story is very sentimental and sweet--and not in way that is cloying or over the top. It left me feeling satisfied and I love the website for the film (https://www.thedamkeeper.com/) and it's nearly as creative as the film itself.

UPDATE: This film lost to the Disney short. Perhaps it might sound snarky, but I assume many of the folks who voted for these films probably didn't see them all---and "Feast" was the only one that had widespread release (with "Big Hero 6"). That's the only way I could explain "The Dam Keeper" not winning.

The Dam Keeper is a beautiful hand-made oil-painted animated longish short film that touches on very sad themes: loneliness, bullying and social exclusion. It speaks of the importance of humour and creativity to overcome the harshness of life, and is a reminder that unfunded fears take us to places we should never go as they have not doors for those people who want to get near us to enter.

The dam in the film is a not of water, if of dark clouds, pollution and darkness overall. A metaphor for the darkness that we all keep away every day, even though is there, around the corner. It is also about social darkness, because that is what most hurts the piggy, not the polluted air around; you can learn to control that, but to learn to deal with social exclusion and darkness is something that you learn the hard way if ever learned.

The film is very charming, very emotional and touching, greatly enhanced by a fantastic music score, and the wonderful non-invasive narration by Lars Mikkelsen. The textures and colors of the film, and its painterly nature help to create a timeless piece of animation.

To me, the main fault of the film is that we don't get to know why every single child in the school bullies the piggy and every adult ignores an orphan. It seems unrealistic and something that I want to believe rarely happens, especially if you are the person who keeps the community safe. It seems not to make sense, to me.

Overall, a wonderful animated film.

The Book is Great.

But for some reason, they changed the story for the film. Made it less dark. And it completely ruined it.

I won't be showing my kids this film. I'll just keep reading them the book.

Perhaps I'll adapt the book and make my own film using AI video tools. Just for my kids to watch.

Maybe everyone here liking the film is because they hadn't read the book first. It's my 3 year olds favourite book, and it's just so disappointing that they couldn't just adapt it true to the book. You usually hear that complaint when it comes to film adaptations from novels, I never thought i would be making that complaint about a little kids book too.

This film is a rare and wonderful gem that stays with you for days after viewing. Visually, it resembles a series of beautiful watercolors, with the animation having an almost a stop-motion quality to it. Though the story is told (nearly) without words, it's accompanied by a moving score and the familiar sounds of children's laughter and crying.

The titular hero--a steadfast little pig--is adorable and sweet-natured. His daily torment and isolation at school are heartbreaking to watch. He's clearly deprived of the love and appreciation he deserves, and you wish you could reach through the screen to comfort and protect him. Be warned--as beautiful as this film is, it's also bound to evoke some of your ugliest childhood memories, whether you ever were on the giving or receiving end of bullying, or simply stayed silent on the sidelines as it happened.

Growing up, many of us built our own "dams" to cope with the darkness of teasing, bullying, and loneliness. When the dams broke, having someone there on the other side--a friend, parent, teacher, anyone--could make all the difference. To me, this is the core message of the film. If you have young children that are just starting school, consider watching and discussing with them.

The Dam Keeper is the richest, most plot-driven short of this year's animated batch of Oscar shorts. Captured in animation that resembles the illustrations of a storybook you grew up reading as a child, The Dam Keeper concerns a pig who controls the dam of his town. The dam's job is to block out the darkness from casting an ugly, dreary shadow onto the neighborhood, and the pig's now deceased father taught him the ways to fight off the darkness. At school, however, darkness hovers over the pig like a dark cloud, as he's bullied profusely, one day, befriending a fox who loves to sketch and shows him liberation through means of animation.

It's as if the writing/directing of Robert Kondo and Daisuke Tsutsumi had past experiences with bullies as children and used animation as a tactic to set their mind free, making The Dam Keeper a short that could potentially bear a very heavy personal meaning. It also shows the way that while the physical darkness can be fought in this particular world that, like in the natural world, feelings of sadness and alienation unfortunately cannot, and through tender, affectionate writing and animation does The Dam Keeper helps us realize that, crafting a beautiful story and a wonderfully easy-on-the-eyes animation style.

Directed by: Robert Kondo and Daisuke Tsutsumi.