Bob's Birthday

The winner of Best Animated Short Film at the 67th Academy Awards is a look at middle age. I understand that "Bob's Birthday" became the inspiration for an animated series. I've never seen the series, so I can only focus on this story of a dentist's misgivings about reaching middle age while his wife invites their friends over for a birthday party.

I should note that this is a mature cartoon, but in my opinion that improves it. The cartoon doesn't sugar-coat or dumb anything down. It treats the characters with respect the whole time. It also brings to mind the fact that the millennials will start reaching middle age in a few years. That creates all the more incentive for us to check out "Bob's Birthday". I recommend it.

This is one of those features where you want to leave your chair, jump on the screen, and put a stop to it. Bob is a dentist who leads a humdrum life with a boring wife and boring house. He is obviously loved but can't quite see it. Eventually, he gets something out of his birthday. His friends at the surprise party are horrible people (sort of like most people) with their pettiness and other foibles. This is really good but hard to endure.

This short justly won the Academy Award and is probably one of the two short produced by the National Film Board of Canada (the other is The Cat Came Back) that most people would have seen than any other work done under their umbrella. Excellent and hilariously funny, particularly Bob's semi-meltdown under circumstances that his wife Margaret would just as soon forget. Beware of surprises. Available from the NFBC, relatively easily for Canadian citizens, a bit more complex for non-Canadians, but worth it either way. Most joyously recommended by a somewhat less neurotic, just-turned-42 Robert!

Margaret Fish is busy putting the finishing touches to a surprise 40th birthday party for her husband Bob. Meanwhile, still at work, dentist Bob is in the grips of a middle aged depression where he wonders where his life is going and if he should really be as bored and disaffected with his lot as he is. While the guests gather in his home, Bob takes his time coming home and, when he eventually does, Margaret finds that Bob is deep in the throws of a crisis and keeps the surprise a secret In what is now regarded a pilot for the animated series "Bob & Margaret", this short film is wonderfully amusing but with a real heart for the characters and emotions involved. It is a simple plot but it is consistently amusing, occasionally very funny and mostly quite moving. The script paints Bob and Margaret as convincing and real people whom the audience easily identify with and feel for; they are funny but never in a cruel or mocking way. The animation matches this, providing a fuzzy warm style that has plenty of amusing little touches around the edges – particularly the pair of dogs in the house! I have never seen more than an episode of the series but consider it to be good and continues the themes and characters established in this film. Overall this is a touching and funny little short about middle age – nothing of any great consequence but enjoyable and entertaining nonetheless.

Maybe don't watch this if you've a phobia about dentists! The eponymous man is promised a birthday curry by his wife, but he's not so very keen. As "Margaret" sits at home carefully creating the kebabs, he is at work using his weapons of torture on his unwitting patient. There's a great poster on the wall saying "Just Say No!" - it's about not eating fruit but it could just easily work warning of the industrial scale flossing that ensues before the reluctant "Bob" heads home for his special treat. Rarely can an animation have picked a collection of subjects that trigger a grimace from me so effectively. From the imaginary smell of a dental drill to the perils of an ill-judged conversation when the house is full of... surprises. The last five minutes really do make your eyes water... This is great fun!