Me and My Moulton

Me and My Moulton concerns a family made up of three young girls, one the oldest, one the middle, and one the youngest, dually noted by the youngest, and their parents, who are bound in a happy, brightly-colored neighborhood. They hunger to be like the children of their neighborhood, each one of them owning a bicycle and embracing the spring weather, while they do not own a bicycle. Their request to their parents is answered after their father tells them to wait a week or so for their new bicycle, which is being shipped all the way from Europe. In the meantime, we watch as the girls learn to get along with quibbling, to which they are given a monetary reward by their grandmother, who believes that a unified family is the strength of everything.

Me and My Moulton has some quirky hilarity to it, like the fact that the girls live with a family of modernist artists and sit on three-legged chairs for dinner and keep falling off, but the narration coming from the youngest prevents any kind of opportunity for the other sisters to get their say. As a result, their humanization is nonexistent, and we're left with a short that is a bit too uneven in its portrayal of gratefulness and a strong, central family bond. Nonetheless, as is a common theme with the Oscar nominated animated short films, there is a lovely animated style here that resembles that of a Flash cartoon in the best possible way.

Directed by: Torill Kove.

"Me and My Moulton" is a Norwegian/Canadian production by Torill Kove. Kove previously won in this category with "The Danish Poet" and was also nominated for "My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts". Because of this, she might just be the favorite to repeat in this category because may of the Oscar folks are probably familiar with her work. Like her previous films, the animation itself is only fair but it works fine with the story--but the story abounds with a wonderful sense of humor and is exceptionally sweet. It also captures the spirit of what it is like to see the world through the eyes of the young. The film consists of the recollections of a little girl about her life growing up in Norway and it abounds with charm. I only rated it an A- due to the quality of the animation.

With art similar to the ones in the books for children, and a story that speaks to people of all ages, this animated short manages to tell a simple, yet profound story of a little girl and her two sisters growing up in Norway. This seems like a personal story, and it might be hard to directly relate to much that happens in it. It is a movie without any villains or much conflict. It slightly touches upon some heavier themes, but does not dwell on them. Is this a good thing? I am not sure.

In a way, the movie is about the compromises made between different generations, and how different the world and mind of an adult is to the one of a child. And it is explained in a way that a child will understand in one way, an adult will understand in two (having once been children).

I only give this a 6 because despite the positive things I said about it, I do not find the story relatable enough for it to stay with me. It's a book I close and never come back to.

Why is it that whenever a woman gets a chance to make a movie, it always has to be a sappy retelling of her own personal life? While male directors make thrillers and comedies and musicals and sci-fis about all sorts of strange characters; women only want to make movies about themselves, and whether you're watching the Oscar nominated shorts or a bunch of shorts from film students, it's always the same. Short movies made by women, are all about the director's own life stories.

This wouldn't have been a problem, had all female filmmakers lived spectacularly interesting lives, but sadly this is not the case, and time and time again I've had to sit through terrible films like this, where a woman tells her "fascinating" story, about the bicycle she had as a child. Another example of this, is the director's previous film called "My grandmother ironed the king's shorts". Well whopdidoo, how interesting. Please tell me more about what pieces of clothing your grandmother ironed.

You see the same trend amongst bloggers: Men blog about politics and technology and cars and all kinds of stuff. Women blog about themselves. The only difference between female bloggers and female filmmakers, is that bloggers aren't funded by the government, like all female filmmakers in Norway are. As the country is officially a feminist state, the law says that 50% of all film funds has to go to female film makers, which means 50% of all Norwegian movies are all the same "female stories" from women who cannot produce anything else than their own boring life on celluloid, because they think they're such special snowflakes.

And the funny thing is, if you ever meet these female directors and ask them how they got funding for their scripts (I've actually asked several) they always reply the same thing "Getting funding in Norway is so easy!" The reason for this is simply because there are very few women who want to make movies, yet the state has decided that 50% of all funds has to go to women, resulting in the same minuscule portion of Norwegian filmmakers constantly getting money to produce a constant stream of movies about their own boring lives.

Yuk!

One of the worst shorts I've ever seen. Just ugly animation and the narrator has an awful voice and accent. And why on earth does the director think her childhood was interesting enough to even share with other people, let alone turn into a movie short? Avoid!

One of the worst shorts I've ever seen. Just ugly animation and the narrator has an awful voice and accent. And why on earth does the director think her childhood was interesting enough to even share with other people, let alone turn into a movie short? Avoid!

One of the worst shorts I've ever seen. Just ugly animation and the narrator has an awful voice and accent. And why on earth does the director think her childhood was interesting enough to even share with other people, let alone turn into a movie short? Avoid!