Kiwi!

This short is 11 years old and is one of the most profound works I've ever seen. The stunning juxtaposition of sincere happiness at an achievement followed by the utter desolation of realizing the Kiwi's life goal results in his complete destruction. This momento mori crescendos in subtleties known only in masterpieces with the ease and simplicity of a cartoon. Without uttering a single line, this short transmits the full range of delight to despair within seconds.

I cannot rate this high enough.

I think it's amazing how as the years pass, people are able to do more and more with CGI than ever before. Now, a small group of people can make a film that looks amazingly professional and is very watchable. However, I still must give a lot of credit to Dony Permedi because although such projects are now possible, it still takes a lot of work and manages to be funny as well.

The film consists of a computer generated kiwi. He's pretty simple in design but very effective. Through much of the film, he's pulling on a rope and doing things that make no sense to the viewer. However, in the end you understand and can laugh at what is occurring--but at the same time be filled with a sense of dread! This is proof that comedy, unfortunately, usually is pretty violent and cruel.

Overall, a great little film that is clever, well done and manages to pack an amazing amount of stuff into its very short length. I really hope to see more from Dony, as this shows great skill and intelligence.

In the time and age of cookie-cutter-CGI "comedies" featuring talking animals and supposedly cool pop culture comments, the magic of what animation can really achieve is often forgotten. Only Pixar reminds us continually of the wonderful opportunities animation has in its storytelling, both in its visuals and its characters. Yet I can think of no animation film outside of Pixar classics such as "Toy Story" 1 & 2 or "Monsters. Inc." that takes you from laughing to crying to the place in between - and in 3 minutes nonetheless.

"Kiwi!" shows how it's done. For starters, its title (and single) character is silent - no silly one-liners here. And yet, he is a fully developed character and the fact that he gets characterized simply via mimic and gestures is one of the many wonderful things the creator has achieved. We know everything we kneed to know about kiwi - his dream and what it means to him. The animation is simple but distinct. Kiwi's big expressive eyes endear him to the viewer as does his resourcefulness in his preparations. The animation's clarity adds to the overall effect and the theme music is great also.

One should not talk about details of the story for fear of spoiling the experience. Again, it's a simple one, almost fable-like. It uses its diminutive bird protagonist to say something profound about the human condition - how far one would go to achieve one's dreams. By the time a tear shows in Kiwi's eyes - there will be tears welling up in yours as well.

It might sound like hyperbole, but it really isn't. Go to YouTube and see this - it is three minutes of animation perfection.

A small, flightless kiwi makes the finishing touches to a lifetime of work as he prepares to fulfil his one, overriding ambition and dream.

I shan't really get into the plot but it does become apparent what the dream is and how it is to be achieved very quickly within this film. Then the dream is fulfilled and before you know it the film is over. To simply say what it is about risks it sounding obvious and corny and would rather take away from the strength of delivery from Permedi. Overegging the cake would have ruined the story by pushing the emotion too much but by having everything simplistic, it comes over as much more genuine and quite touching.

The kiwi is a visually limited character but this doesn't matter so much because where Permedi is not able to bring us Pixar quality graphics, what is brought out is a character. The idea is sweet and immediately tells us of a simple goal and a lifetime of work towards it with dedication and hard work. The actual dream is delivered with no overblown delivery but rather with a single tear, which makes it all the more touching for the viewer.

A simple short film perhaps but one that benefits from this approach as the restraint shown in not pushing the emotion and allowing the viewer to be touched by the wider idea rather than a specific musical score, camera shot or other technique.

In 1998, a beautiful CGI short called "Bunny" was made, with a beautiful message and beautiful CGI. Now, along comes "Kiwi", with the animation more simplistic, but the message still powerful.

Even though they are both very different, both "Kiwi" and "Bunny" are animated shorts to be treasured. Watch both of them, on Youtube if you can!

This animated short starts with a kiwi pulling a large rope. What on earth is he doing? Yep, I asked the same question. Just watch on and you will see. There are many surprises in store, some happy - and some not...

I love this short because it is an easy length and not too "draggy" and because of the simplistic but warming CGI, the kiwi, who is a very cute character, the theme of the short and the ending, which waters your eyes. There is a little bit of mixed humour in this as well, which is not found in "Bunny".

Another thing which fascinates me about this short is that six people are included in the credits, three who made it and three in the acknowledgements. I think it was very clever how three people made this (meanwhile the crew for "Bunny" was a huge amount - but then the CGI was more advanced, even eight years before this was made).

I recommend this to people who like kiwis, see the beauty in animation and who do not mind emotional short films too much. Enjoy "Kiwi"! :-)