Meltdown

At the back of the fridge the ice is coming; the other foodstuffs watch on in helpless horror as it claims its first victim in orange, who had rolled too far back on the shelf to be safe. They know it will continue and will come for them all though, but ham sandwich has a plan if only he can bring everyone together again (since technically he has already brought many of them together to make himself).

Meltdown is a very funny short film. It plays like a disaster movie, so we have the tragic losses, the heroic leader, the frightened one and the dramatic moments of hope. It should also be noted that it plays out like a very good disaster movie and the film understands the conventions of this genre so that it can use them to good effect here. I was chuckling throughout at the absurdity of the genre being done with the contents of a fridge. The script is also loaded with good material, in particular a Deep Blue Sea moment that caught me unawares. So many of the lines and characters are well written and funny that it is hard not to love it.

In terms of the delivery the style of filming with quick cuts and action shots also aids the feeling of the genre. I am not sure how it was done in terms of animating the characters, but this is very effect to give them character – essentially they are puppets but the movements are very "natural" if you can forgive me saying that about things like jam jars etc. Anyway, Meltdown is very cleverly done; it knows its genre and uses this well to produce a film that manages to be absurd and funny while also working surprisingly well as a disaster movie too.

"Meltdown" is a wonderfully silly and original short film from David Green. It's about the adventures of your food in your refrigerator when you close the door! Yes, they have adventures...and the food is anthropomorphic! It talks and even moves. The reason the food starts talking is because the refrigerator is getting too cold--so cold that the food is starting to freeze. So, it's up to our brave heroes, the wise celery and the valiant plate of spaghetti to save the day--as each try to turn the dial down to warm up the fridge!

The stop-motion animation is very nice and the voices work well. But, most importantly, the weirdness is the star--and the weirdness make it quite endearing. Worth seeing. And, if you do, watch through the credits or you'll miss something.

By a strange coincidence the last short film I saw was BIG BANG BIG BOOM which was a stop frame animation movie as was this one . MELTDOWN does have its tongue planted firmly in its cheek and is an affectionate homage to both the horror and disaster genres . The idea is simple and that is a diverse range of food stuffs in the fridge find themselves being threatened by an approaching sheet of ice and director Dave Green plays up to the clichés and humorous aspects of the scenario . Some people might be offended that food is being used as an object of fun but it's a reality that the reasons there's so many hungry people in the world has nothing to do with a lack of food but more to do with hungry people being the victims of conflict or of failed economic policies . If anything they are victims of human nature rather than a lack of food . There's also a lack of humour in the human condition which MELTDOWN seeks to address so well done Dave

I was slightly struck that this was an American short film because the two human characters are a bit too broad and stereotypical " Noo York " sounding individuals , so much so I thought they might be parodies of the Eurocentric view of Americans - loud, brash, sarcastic philistines but as it turned out this remains an American film with a quirky sense of humour and remains appreciated by this reviewer