I'm still trying to work through all the Oscar nominees that are in my queue from this year (and the four years before that). This was nominated for Best Animated Short and it is very cute. A wolf (Dominic West) infiltrates the house of his greatest enemy, Little Red Riding Hood (Rose Leslie), with a plan to eat her two children. To gain entry, he first lures their regular nanny (Tamsin Grieg) into his confidence by telling her the "true" story of Little Red's origins. Once inside the house, he finds the oldest child too suspicious so he again lulls them with "true" stories about Cinderella and Jack and the Beanstalk, all the while preparing a soup base for them to flavor.
I didn't grow up with a lot of Roald Dahl. I read the two Charlie and the Chocolate Factory books at the public library but I wasn't blown away. I think I might have liked this better if it had been available. The animation is all right but it's the story that is really compelling here. The characters look very plasticized but that's a look we've seen many times from kids movies. It doesn't have either a hyperrealistic effect or a touchable quality to it which I think worked against it from a judging standpoint. Still, it's streaming on Netflix in two parts and is perfectly suitable as an alternative to The Bee Movie or Kung Fu Panda for the 800th time.
No comments:
Post a Comment