This Magnificent Cake!

I really wanted to love this short. When I satrted watching it, I was mesmerized by the animation, the character design, the colour palette, the textures, the voice acting and sound design... Unfortunately, all these positive aspects were ruined by an extremely vague narrative posing as "dreamlike". The "biting" humor doesn't work. The non-commentary on the horrors of racism and what Belgium's done in Congo is stumpy, to say the least. Are we meant to empathize with the racist, horrid characters because of their awkward, if a bit funnily gross representation? The film, ultimately, doesn't say anything. That would be OK if it wasn't saying that it was saying something. I'm extremely disappointed, hence the extremely low amount of stars.

Five stories about Belgian Congo. The king Leopold II, a poor Pygmy , working in a hotel, dead after an absurd accident, a failed businessman and his strange friend, bottles of beer and stupid death, a porter and a young deserter , his African experienge and the return to home.

To define it as a critic against colonialism is exagerated. Only five sketches of stories about vulnerable people and their sad lives , dreams and events who are only a sort of stains lost in the way of world.

A generous short film because the sense of scenes is offered by viewer. In some measure, only by viewer because the director seems seduced by characters design, animation, colors, textures than the story itself.

Positives: The French & adjoining northern regions produce great animations especially stop-motion. Sweden even got into the game with a bonus short. The craftsman(woman)ship for the characters, props, settings were, as far as I could tell, all magnificently crafted from wool (or it's compressed analogue - felt). So kudos for all that. Negative: For the casual viewer the stories (supposedly satirical, metaphorical, symbolic) seemed too obscure with a fragmented flow. Conclusion: Entertaining, but not something I'm going to remember.

It is extremely different movie, I never have seen something similar. It is a powerful movie, but not extremely interesting. I also feel that the premise is not always clear. Yet, my friends loved this movie.

This Magnificent Cake combines 5 short stories set in ancient colonial DRC. Congo, and accomplishes to paint a bizarre, yet emotionally investing picture of those horrific times from several perspectives.

It's length of a mere 44 minutes, the plethora of barely connected stories, the animation style and the absence of much dialogue legitimately makes this film a world wonder in my books, in how it's able to flesh out the characters so humanly, and most of all, is able to make so much happen! There is death, discrimination, loss, grief, and so much more happening to so many characters in such a short amount of time! In a way it reminds me of how Quentin Tarantino fleshes out his characters through dialogue, until suddenly something horrific happens. In this movie, however, that dialogue is just filled with observing, thoughtful stares and real human emotion that I've never before experienced in animation!

The animation is impeccable and stunningly detailed. The score is chillingly beautiful and uses it's silence just as impactfully as the dialogue does. The sound design is truly captivating, as it mixes the woolen set-design with sharp and solid ambiance of caves and buildings. The voice-acting is on point, and the different languages add to the isolation of the characters.

A problem some people have with the movie is that the stories either don't go enough in-depth, or that they don't combine together into a coherent plot, but if fully disagree. Sure, it's minimalist in that perspective, but that's exactly it's beauty. It serves you beautifully threaded strings of story and character that you can knot into a spiderweb in your own mind, and then view the terrifying, gut-punching and spine-chilling overarching colonial spider that devours it's enslaved pray. But as horrendous and inexcusable the actions of the Belgian colonialists were back then, the movie also adds backstory to their hardships, loneliness, misfortunes and ignorance in an unbiased way.

This is easily in my top 3 favorite movies of all time, and each time i thing back to it i get goosebumps. I truly hope this masterpiece of an undiscovered gem gets the recognition it deserves. I could literally not recommend it more!