Lou

It feels good to give back. This would be the message of this lovely short. You see, in life not everything is about us. It's also about others and the way we can enjoy this movie called life together, in peace and harmony. The world would change tremendously if we could change behaviours from time to time.

The point of the Academy Award-nominated "Lou" seems to be that we all have good in our hearts, we sometimes just need motivation to find it. I do agree that motivation and reminding someone of goodness works better than punishment. Not any kind of masterpiece, but worth seeing.

'LOU': Four Stars (Out of Five)

A 6-minute Pixar animated short film, which plays before 'CARS 3' in theaters, about a monster that lives inside a lost-and-found box. The short was written and directed by debut filmmaker Dave Mullins; a veteran animator who's previously worked on multiple feature Pixar films (including 'CARS' and 'CARS 2'). The short, like everything from Pixar, is of course visually beautiful to watch, at all times. It's also funny, creative and it even has a great message about not bullying others (at the end). It has pretty much everything you've come to expect from a Pixar short film. This one isn't quite as emotional as my favorite Pixar shorts are though, even though it touches on a subject very close to me (bullying). Which I've had to deal with all of my life, including adulthood. Still it's always visually creative and amusing to watch. It's definitely entertaining too, for kids and adults, and it does have a very positive message. The short is yet another win for Pixar animation.

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Pixar Studios has won a lot of Oscars over the years--many of them for Best Animated Short. "LOU" is their latest nomination and is a very pleasant little film. However, it's NOT among the studio's best shorts and is relatively pedestrian....but I still think it will win this year...mostly because the other nominees are a very weak bunch. As I noticed one other reviewer say in their summary, "Yet another win for Pixar animation"!

The film is hard to describe. It's set on a playground at a school and somehow a pile of lost and found objects have become sentient and take on a weird form. Later, they teach a bully a lesson.

The film, start to finish, looks great. This is no surprise at all as the best animated films in the world are coming from Pixar and Disney Studios. While I liked it and respect the quality of the production, it also seemed very safe and not particularly inspiring or out of the ordinary.

Being a big fan of Pixar since forever, both their feature films and short films, of course expectations for 'LOU' were high. Luckily, those high expectations were not just met, in some ways they were exceeded.

'LOU' is not quite among Pixar's best short films like 'Presto', 'One Man Band', 'Knick Knack', 'Piper' and 'Geri's Game'. However, it is one of the biggest examples of the short film being much better than the feature film. Didn't care for 'Cars 3', finding that despite the great animation that it never really got into gear and was highly suggestive of the 'Cars' franchise running out of gas, but loved 'LOU' and that it alone is worth the admission. The premise could have been potentially goofy, but was a long way from that. It's not exactly unique but is incredibly well handled that that is insignificant.

The animation is fantastic, one of Pixar's best-looking later short films and perhaps overall, some of its fluidity, colour and detail being among Pixar's overall best perhaps. Which is huge praise, considering that even in their lesser efforts like 'The Good Dinosaur' and 'Cars 2 and 3' for features and 'Mater and the Gaslight' and 'Lava' for shorts (this said, as blasphemous as this may sound, 'Cars 3' is the only one that didn't do much for me) the animation is always one of the best assets. The music score has whimsical energy and a suitably understated quality at points, not using a repetitive song to make an impression and is never ham-fisted or intrusive.

What stood out about 'LOU' was its mood, how one really connects with it and how well it did with its idea. Story-wise it is slight and not much of one, but that didn't matter too much and the short duration flies by and makes one wish for more actually. Watching 'LOU' was such an uplifting and heartfelt experience for me, parts are amusing but not in an overt way and it is hard not to be touched too. The mix of gentle (and in other efforts of theirs riotous) humour and heart-wrenching pathos was always a strength with Pixar, 'LOU' is not an exception by any stretch of the imagination.

It also has charm by the bucket-loads and it was incredibly cute without being too sickly or sugary. It even prompts some thought-provoking questions and thoughts. The characters are appealing and engage you, even the bully (which usually would be an impossible feat).

Overall, captivating and 7 short minutes of joy and beauty. 9/10 Bethany Cox