Pear Cider and Cigarettes

I just saw this 35-minute film at the movie theater, at a show featuring the nominees for the Oscars for Best Animated Short Subjects released in 2016 -- plus two that should have been.

This is not one of my favorites of the set. First, at 35 minutes, it hardly seems right to call it a short subject, Second, it tells its story by means of a voice-over narration. It falls into a class of cartoons that are called slightingly "Radio With Pictures." This means it could have been offered as an audio drama, on the radio back when they offered stories in that medium regularly, or as something to listen to on your car's audio system as you travel down the road.

This is not to denigrate the story. It's a very interesting story about a man who travels to China to keep an eye on an old friend, whose carousing life has nearly killed him, while he undergoes a liver transplant. It's simply that the visual elements are not of primary interest and could be dispensed with entirely.

This short, animated documentary/drama is an amazing and deeply personal work of art. It is both beautiful and ugly, showing the struggles of such strong, adult topics as addiction, alcoholism, and death. Although it is at times a very difficult and emotional film to watch, there's still a surprising sense of humor that flows throughout.

It all plays out like a radio show or an audio book, there is no dialogue, just detailed and, at times, hilarious narration. It is told from the perspective of the filmmaker, as he recounts his relationship with his daredevil and at times criminal friend Techno, from their childhood life to his crippling future as an alcoholic to his unfortunate and young death.

Techno obviously wasn't the smartest or nicest guy in the world, but the film allows us to feel sympathy for him.

This is definitely among the leading contenders in the best animated short at the Oscars this year!

Pear Cider and Cigarettes (2016)

*** (out of 4)

Out of the five Oscar-nominations for Best Animated Short, this one here clocks in the longest and it's certainly the most adult one. Robert narrates the story of his best friend, Techno, who is pretty much that wild child that most people have a friend like. It turns out that Techno's wild partying days have finally caught up with him and he needs a liver transplant, which takes the two friends to China.

This here certainly isn't the best short from the five selections but it's an entertaining one. The film clocks in at 35-minutes, which is pretty much longer than the other four combined but it's got some very good images throughout and I thought the story itself was totally captivating. There's no question that once you started watching the picture that director-writer Robert Valley managed to hold your attention and as the film plays on you really start to wonder and care about the Techno character.

It's an unusual addiction story in that very few addicts will have the resources that are available to the main character of this animated short. But we've heard the same addiction stories a million times, so it's an interesting and haunting voyage into territory most of us won't experience. I agree with other reviewers about its flaws but it is still very well done and very much worth watching unless you need absolute perfection in your audio/visual entertainment.

I just saw this in a collection of the Oscar nominated shorts this year. While I thought the live action ones were excellent (all of them), it was the animated segment that had me mixed. Some were decent, but others not so much. This one is so conflicting on me that I just have to say something about it. For an animated short it looks excellent, and seems quite reminiscent of a graphic novel. The style and execution of such here is brilliant. The story is also decent, and so is the choice of music.

On the other hand, the execution of anything other than the visuals and music is iffy. The story is one that I believe would make for a good feature-length film, given the right director and screenwriter... but, being 30 minutes only serves to limit how this story can be told, and it cripples it in my opinion.

The story is completely narrated from the first person, as with the animation style. This wouldn't be so bad if a) it worked with the story being presented and b) the short wasn't half an hour long. Surprise! It doesn't work with the story too well and this is the longest animated short of the bunch. The issue with this decision is that it's not as investing as a story like this SHOULD be. It's one with ups and downs, a realistic setting, and the potential for great characters, but all of that feels wasted the 45th time I heard the name 'Techno' narrated to me, an audience member.

My point is: as far as the Oscar shorts for this year, this one is easily the most risqué (I mean, it did give us a fair warning before it played, and it deserved it more than last year), with probably some of the best 2 dimensional animation I've seen in a while... but, given the fact that it's short, it FALLS short on what more it could do brilliantly. For some this will be moving, for me, it just felt like it moved all over the place, way more than it should, and that's a real shame.