My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts

The granddaughter/narrator regales us with a story that begins in 1905 when her grandmother lived in the newly independent Norway. If you know your history, then you'll know it was a joint monarchy with Sweden until a Danish prince was chosen as King Haakon VII and his British wife Maud his consort. The snag? Well it turns out that neither knew how to iron a shirt. That didn't go down well with the cheering crowds so they had to outsource the task to a local shop. That's where grandmother comes in. She worked in the shop and wanted to know whose monogrammed apparel she was sorting out. Hardly the soul of discretion, she blabbed to everyone which got her a dashing husband before the Nazi invasion forced the King to flee and WWII led to the "Ling" energetically defying their occupation. This is when grannie came into her own again. As the soldiers brought their uniforms to her shop, she - and soon all of her compatriots - added all sorts of itching powder to their clothing. A sort of sartorial sabotage that soon reduced their unwelcome visitors to nudity and eventually afforded the King a chance to return to his Kingdom where ironing, well we just didn't need it so much. The animation here is a little simple, reminiscent of the "Mr. Benn" cartoons at times, but this has an interesting story underpinning it and the drawings actually serve more as a visual aide-memoire to that. It's only ten minutes long, and I did quite enjoy it.

The film begins with a brief history lesson about Norway after achieving independence. The people actually voted to have a king and this short is a very silly story about the woman who ironed this man's shirts. While there's not a huge amount of depth to it, the film has a very likable quality about it and a kooky but subtle sense of humor.

The maker of MY GRANDMOTHER IRONED THE KING'S SHIRTS was the same lady (Torill Kove) who was responsible for the Oscar-winning short, THE DANISH POET. Both films are very similar--both are about Norway, both have very similar artwork, both have similar narration and both have a very odd and quirky sense of humor. Both are exceptional, but perhaps THE DANISH POET was ever so slightly better. Sadly, though both films were wonderful, Kove has only made a small number of shorts.

Charming can be the fair term to define this short animation. It is the eulogy to he grandmother, nice image of Shirt Guerillas, the amusing perspective about Haakon VII and his family and the inspired drawings giving to story a smart dose of seduction.

A lady ironing clothes, discovering, grace monogram, one of misterious clients identity, fighting , in period of Nazi ocuppation of Norway, in her precise, quasi - silly way , against ocupant, the origin of marriage and the motif to renounce at her job.

The basic virtue - the granny of Torill Kove can be yours, the beautiful tone defining her traits creating portrait of universal grandmother.

I'm no expert on short films (or other films for that matter), but I saw this by accident and rather enjoyed it too. The animation is rather simplistic, but the story seems to be aimed at a somewhat more adult audience. It's pretty funny and inventive and I can only say that you won't regret checkin' it out when you have the opportunity. But I guess that will have to be "by accident", just like when I did. 7/10