Train en folie

A cow hitted by a train. And a chain of events about a tinny fireman looking for to secure the trip, a seduced captain and the cynical solution of high class for fix the problems.

Ironic, energetic, amusing and absurd, this short animation has the gift to remind all the flavors of childhood and the realistic situations who seem , in so many occasions, just normal. The result - a sort of warning about social relations, price of survive, improvisations for save the critic situations and ladys charm .

The stars - the cow, winner in the tough situation and, no doubts, the tiny black dog , risking to be used as combustible.

So, just charming.

As a train makes its way over mountaintops, it come upon a cow. Hitting the cow sends the train out of control. Soon the ones running the train begin to find ways to get fuel to keep the train going, including taking the clothes of the people in one of the cars. The rich, uncaring ones in the engine and the front cars begin celebrating, but there are tougher times ahead. Quite exciting and rather harsh.

This animated film was included with the special showing of the 2010 Oscar-nominated short films as one of the non-nominated but highly commended films. However, I thought this was an odd choice as I wasn't the least bit bowled over by it and I have seen many cartoons also sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada that were much better. Now you can't blame RUNAWAY for this--it's not a bad film at all, but it just seemed to be featured a bit out of its league.

The film has traditional style animation--something that's become rarer these days. The drawing style is very simple and the story is done without many words at all. The music is pretty nice and works well with the film.

As for the story, it's very, very simple. There is a train that is chugging down the tracks with a conductor (they call him a "captain" here and he wears a naval-type uniform, however) who doesn't pay much attention. Because of this, the train strikes a cow and then soon goes careening out of control. The guy shoveling coal is forced to drive--with dire consequences. Overall, it's a very simple story with a bit of a sense of humor, but it's also pretty average from a NFB film.