Monsieur Bout-de-Bois

Now winter time is a distinctly dangerous time to be a stick. Especially if you are out in the forest minding your own business and encountering people and animals that can find all sorts of uses for you. You can get covered in dogs saliva, or chucked into the river to play a game devised by that yellow bear that liked the honey. You can be set fire to, used as a weave for a bird's nest or even swept out to sea. Indeed, were it not for a complete stroke of luck it might well be that Mrs. Stick and the children three might never again their father see. I enjoyed this colourful animation as we follow the escapades of a dad who epitomises all that I can think to deter one from ever being daft enough to be a jogger! There's loads of wildlife and scenarios that allow the artists to mix the flora and the fauna colourfully and keep the story skipping along entertainingly, with even the slightest hint of (Christmas) jeopardy, as we pass half an hour accompanied by a jolly score and lots of snow. Good fun.

Delightful! An incredible voice cast. Endearing animation. A wonderful, adventurous tale to be revisited often by folks of all ages. I give this film an 8 (delightful) out of 10. {Animated Family Short}

Nothing special to say about this movie except that it is one of those best cartoons or animations based on a book. Simple, magical, funny, sweet, inspirational. For example it inspired me to build some small device similar to branch and let river or even just a stream bring it to far far away. Something I always imagined as a kid. Also flying in air either in real vehicle or in from of toys like drones. Good for Christmas and New Year. Reminds me of some religious or spiritual teaching that even branches are alive.

Well, I didn't know this was a Christmas short. It somehow ended up in my laptop and now that I've seen it, I thought why not review it especially because it has Dr.Watson or Martin Freeman in it.

It's a fairly simple story with Martin Freeman's Stick Man, who lives with his family and one fine day decides to go for a jog and finds himself in an adventure he wasn't really expecting. That's it. No complications, no hidden meaning. Simple and fun.

The animation had a stop-motion kind of a feel to it. I mean, it looked like stop-motion but nowadays animation has reached such heights that it's difficult to tell the difference between actual stop-motion and artificial. Stick Man's youngest kid is the cutest Stick I've ever seen. The dialogue in the movie consists of rhymes that are said by various elements in the movie like the frog or the pigeon etc. It was basically Toy Story with twigs, oh sorry, Stick Man. Martin Freeman really plays these funny, frustrated characters really well and he conveys it only by the grunts when he slams into an oar and also how his tone changes every-time he says the poem.

Definitely give it a watch. It's only 27 minutes long which has 5 minutes of credits in it. It reminded me that shorts and even full- length films can be made just for the fun of it and this one made me feel like a kid again.

This is a delightful short film and it's nice to watch with the kids. Its visual storytelling is impressive and the music is quite moving. Highly rrecommend recommend.