The Bead Game

The National Film Board of Canada sponsored a lot of animated films over the years and because of that Canadians have done amazingly well in the category of Best Animated Short Film at the Oscars. The Bead Game is yet another of these films, though I have got to admit that it's not nearly the film that Patel's Oscar-winning short, PARADISE, is a much better film--with breathtaking animation and a wonderful story. Here, in a film made almost a decade earlier, the animation style is far less spectacular and appears to be made from thousands of little beads. Like Paradise, the story is secondary to the animation but in this case the lesser quality of the visuals make this an interesting but especially compelling film.

At the start of this feature, I was convinced that we were looking down on a collection of magnetically charged toilet rolls as the tiny white circles bounce about the screen illustrating the evolution of what can only be called eating. Starting with what looked like an amoeba, they split and grow, change colour, spin, whirl and expand - but always the newest one eats the old one. As the chronology develops the creatures depicted get more indentifiable, larger, and hungrier before the arrival of man and the ante is upped rather - we really do know how to devour, kill and destroy on an exponential level. Where next? Accompanied by a simple, drum-based, soundtrack this is quite an entertaining animation along the lines of something Norman McLaren might have produced, and at times it looks like some of the characters might have actually been knitted!

Maybe I'm not cynical enough. I see some gave this low scores. The animation is beyond belief, using beads to show the history of our world and what we have become. The transformations are so precise and beautifully animated. I would say that one should not miss this.

WOW!! The tree of life. beautiful stop-motion animation of the expansion of animal and human life on this world. in the most brutal way that can be explained. Enchanting.

This short, nominated for an Academy Award, is one of the most amazing uses of stop-motion animation I have ever seen! The music is perfect for the action on-screen and the detail work is incredible! Although this is not the best I have seen by Patel, it's close and is an absolutely mezmerizing short. When Cartoon Network was showing O Canada, this ran fairly often. Most recommended.