The Dam Keeper

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.

"His mask protected me from the cloud, but nothing I had, protected me from the people."

The Dam Keeper is an emotionally engaging animated short co-directed by Robert Kondo and Daisuke Tsutsumi, which I thought could've upset Disney's candidate (Feast) for the Oscar win this year. The hand painted 2D animation style wasn't my favorite, but the story makes up for it with a lot of heart. The short centers on a young pig who has a very important task. He is the Dam Keeper, in other words he is in charge of operating a large windmill at the entrance of the city which keeps all the pollution out. But that isn't the only darkness that the pig has to face. In school the rest of the kids make fun of him and he is constantly bullied by everyone. This is a darkness which he doesn't know how to face. When a young new fox arrives at the school the two become close and he learns that through drawing he can find a new means of expression. The story is emotionally engaging and we sympathize for the main character and how he is alienated from the rest of the kids. The only dialogue in the film is voiced by a narrator (Lars Mikkelsen), the rest of the story is told through the animation and its accompanying score. There is an interesting resemblance going on between the darkness that the pig faces to protect the city and the darkness he faces in his own personal life. The Dam Keeper is a rare animated film that manages to make an impact on the audience despite its short run time.

http://estebueno10.blogspot.com/

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.

It is a precious portrait of the near other. It is admirable portrait of appearences, and modesty and friendship and little heroes. And it is example of beautiful drawings, seductive storytelling, great portrait of school life and about a fundamental duty , unknown by many but giving its huge significance in the context of a form of revenge. It is a splendid friendship portrait. So, just precious.

The story was very shallow. The main idea is very understandable and even trivial, but the execution is weak.

Both I and my child were bored while watching.