The Street

Just watched this Oscar-nominated animated short by Caroline Leaf on the National Film Board of Canada blog as linked from Warren Leonhardt's blog. It's basically an autobiographical look at the childhood of the writer, Mordecai Richler, as he relates the last days of his grandmother's life and his mother's devotion to her. Except for what his sister mentions what possibly happens when someone is hanging, this might be a good educational experience for an under-12 to watch with a parent if that child wanted to know what dying was like. The watercolor images on glass are really compelling here. So on that note, I highly recommend Caroline Leaf's The Street.

This short film financed by The Canadian Film Board was about, I assume, the writer's childhood and his recollection about his grandmother and her eventual death. While I'm sure many will find this film profound, I was left feeling a bit disappointed. Instead of meaning, the movie left me with the opposite, as instead of celebrating the life of the grandmother, she seemed to be more of a burden than anything else to everyone in the family but her devoted daughter. Perhaps others ascribed more meaning to it than this, but this left me very sad. In this sense, the film was good but certainly far from a "feel good film"! As far as the technical merits go, I liked the style of the narration but found the animation itself not all that interesting. A decent film but that's really about all.

The only thing I knew about this short before watching was the plot description I read here on the site. "A young boy impatiently waits for his grandmother to die so he can have her room" was the gist of it.

So I was thinking this would go one of two ways, it would either be darkly humorous, or touching and human, maybe a combination of both. To my surprise and dismay, it turned out to be neither.

The simple and pedestrian story is told in a very mundane and uninvolving way. I felt little to no emotion watching it unfold.

But, my lord, that animation! It reminds me of those bumpers they used to show on PBS kids (is it harder to toot? or to tutor two tutors to toot?). So visually the film is a treat, but with the slog of a story, I can only give it a modest recommendation.

To me, the best part of this story - by far - was the art. The animated short was painted on glass, frame by frame and has a different look to it than anything I have ever seen. It's fascinating to view. I would watch this again just to appreciate the visuals, which are unique.

I didn't find the story funny, which is what you usually expect from an animated short. It wasn't even appealing to me. It really isn't a cartoon, in that sense, but simply a short Jewish family's story illustrated instead of photographed. A young kid narrates the tale of his grandmother dying, and some of the reactions of the rest of the family. The kid is a bit of wise-guy. I might even watch this again with the sound off because the art is that good!

This movie was part of the DVD "Leonard Maltin's Animation Favorites From The National Film Board Of Canada.

Thanks to a well-told story, believable characters, and a highly unusual look, I can certainly recommend this solid Canadian short. If you're looking for Disney-like animation, you will be sorely disappointed, but the crude paintings fit the film well, and the story moved along at a fast enough pace to keep me interested. This isn't one of the National Film Board's best features, but it was still enjoyable, and it is worth a look if you ever come across it.