Prologue

Impressive non verbal cartoon of high seriousness. No Pink Panthers here. It's also a long trip from Williams' The LITTLE ISLAND or the disaster of The PRINCESS & THE COBBLER.

Spending years doing one frame one drawing on paper, before state of the art modification, to achieve a striking, exceptionally fluid style, this one is a break from what we've seen from Williams.

The labor of love short film uses the Spartan-Athenian conflict for it's imagery.

We see aggression and its consequences in a sometimes startling manifestation.

Richard Williams' Prologue is a decidedly emptier short film in terms of plot, as its eight minutes showcase very elaborate and detailed sketches of warfare that are uncommonly violent and brutal, especially by the standards of animation. The battle takes place between Spartan and Athenian warriors, who find new and riveting ways to pierce the exposed fleshes of their enemies all while trying to win the war despite losing everything.

You can tell how little the short is about given my dramatic plot reiteration. As a whole, while there isn't much going on with Prologue, it's a strangely immersive short film. Its largely blank canvas, only decorated with simple pencil strokes of gray, black, and red that realize the ugliness of battle, strangely helps one get sucked into the world before being spit back out when the credits roll. On top of that, the violence here is immaculately conceptualized and the overall effect is strangely satisfying, almost servicing one's questionably human, carnal desires to see violence by way of such an innocent medium. If nothing else, use it as a cautionary tale for the horror of war.

The animation was exellent, I give it a 8 stars because as a person who is into historical reenacment I found some pieces historically innacurate with the way figures fought and were equipt but this can be forgiven because this animation shows 4 skirmishers not hoplites. The negative reviews I have seen so far are a testiment to human deniel and misinformation/lack of infomation. The animation has a story, it's the Peloponissian war, a war that happened not a fantastic event that most of your might think. It potrays perfectly the gruesomeness of such combat instead of making it look like a hero movie like most pieces of modern cinema do. For all those who review this movie negatively and actaully think what they are waching is just two guys killing each other for just cause then you have nothing more to do but to simply open a history book to realise this doesn't just have a story but it's a recreation of a real moment in human history.

First of all, anyone who watches this can easily see why parents were advised to remove their children from the theater before it was presented.

The animation is -- STUNNINGLY Beautiful! I can see why another reviewer mistook the story as an tiny war, but I felt it was depicting Athens/Sparta.

The story is pointlessly grim and violent. As an aside, I doubt any man would find it comfortable to fight without at least underwear, if not shorts on. The dangling genitalia was unnecessary to the story, I cannot see one reason it was done.

What is it supposed to be? Is it supposed to speak to the violence and loss of war? Is that something our world doesn't understand, hence a need to waste the (considerable) effort of the artist on? No.

The entire time I was watching it I was frustrated by the wasted talent. He should find a new writer give him a story worthy of his work.

Just found this, what I found out was the late Richard Williams' final film, on Facebook. It begins with a bug going out one flower to another and then segues to a bunch of men-one completely naked, one with some armor-fighting with swords and a few other weapons. I'll stop there and just say this was quite excellent in the way the figures seem life-like with great action and drama to spare. R.I.P. Mr. Williams