Fresh Guacamole

I have been going to the theater on a pilgrimage for quite a few years now each January-February to see the annual showings of the Best Animated and Best Live Action Shorts. I am lucky enough to live in one of the few places in the country that shows it each year. Now what I am about to say might offend some, but it seems that compared to most years, this year's crop of animated shorts is not as good as usual. While I liked a few films, I didn't love any of them--and no really memorable film was in the lot (such as a couple recent winners, "Logorama" or "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore"). Now this is not to say not to see them--but none bowled me over, that's for sure.

"Fresh Guacamole" is another film from the stop-motion genius, PES (Adam Pesapane). I've loved his other films. However, a major problem will probably prevent this one from getting the Oscar--it's well under two minutes long!! Most of his films are this short--and it seems that to have a better chance of winning these wonderful films should be a bit longer. Of course, considering the subject matter here (showing a batch of guacamole being made using everyday objects and stop-motion) it would be hard to stretch it out much more. You really SHOULD see this one--and my score of 7 only is due to its length. It is really clever.

I won't do any describing of this because it will sound ridiculous. But in reality, it is a seamless, outrageous little two minutes that will be hard to forget. Every little bit fits magically into what seems like an actual recipe; it is colorful and unique in every way.

I really lived it but almost 2 minutes isn't enough to get u oscar

I have never tasted Guacamoles and so I was completely clueless about its ingredients while watching 'Fresh Guacamoles'. The 2 minute to-the-point short had a mystery hand preparing 'Guacamoles' in an unconventional manner using everyday objects like a light- bulb, ball, 2 chess pieces, poker chips... hand grenade ( not really an everyday object, is it?).

I could make out how animator PES got his inspiration for a few items, such as the seed removed from the hand grenade which had the number seven on it and resembled a pool ball could be compared to the seven steps used in making the recipe (I counted the steps) or the slightly unimaginative idea of using chess pieces as salt and pepper holders ( could've been more imaginative: I got one that's a bit gross for such animation but nevertheless I'm gonna say it - dandruff for salt and grated incense stick for pepper!... My point is that further experimentation could've been possible). The avocado-hand grenade was more hard to guess because I haven't seen or touched avocados. The most interesting part was watching the dice getting diced further.

I would not have been surprised had this won the 'Most Innovative Concept' award in some Annual Advertisement Award ceremony. In fact, such a concept can be highly useful for targeting children's market for some cereal ad. But when the word Oscar is associated with such a work, I'm slightly taken aback. There are lot many ingenious works on YouTube, one including a condom ad where rubber condoms are modeled (like balloons) into the form of two animals who... well, hump each other till the third one arrives and... joins the sex party! It's a crazy ad but you laugh out loud and it gets across its point. I would not think of that work as an Oscar worthy contender, and neither do I consider 'Fresh Guacamoles' to be one.

While the stop animation used in the short is fantastic and I'm certain my friend, a student animator, would love this film and so would all others who are more aware of the effort going into such works, many common viewers would simply remark 'Nice. Is that it?'. The ending too does not do something adventurous to surprise us. Neither does the film do enough to tempt me to make the recipe myself. Fresh Guacamoles remains somewhat dry and unmemorable.

Had this been an advertisement, I would have given it a 7.5. But looking at it as an Oscar nominated work ( Oscars really changes everyone's expectations) I shall give 'Fresh Guacamoles' for stars out of ten.

This is a very short film and indeed one of the reasons it appears to have had so many votes and comments on IMDb is that it is known for being the shortest film ever nominated for an Oscar. The film is about a man making guacamole, dicing up the ingredients, mixing them and ultimately serving them up with chips. The method of delivery of this is live-action stop-motion animation (for which the correct term is pixilation) and we see other objects being used in the place of the regular food stuffs – so for example a hand grenade instead of an avocado, poker chips instead of potato chips. Additionally when something is "diced" with a knife, it literally becomes a load of dice.

As a short stop-motion film it is very cool and I liked a lot the way it takes odd ideas and runs with them. We all have things flash into our minds at times, whether it is the obvious stuff like a banana being held like a gun, and essentially that film takes these silly connections and makes them work – so the starting point is that an avocado reminds the maker of a hand grenade and it goes from there. The animation is impressively smooth which is very hard to do when working with real people as we are here. The transition to dice and smaller dice is also impressively done.

In terms of the Oscar nomination I'm not sure why this film was selected when there are so many great stop-motion projects out there, but then in fairness I am not really sure how the Academy narrows the field down to a short list for nomination. I take the nomination of a film like this as recognition not just for this specific project, but rather acknowledgement and highlight of the many great little short films out there that are free of the pressure to return big profits and instead can focus on creativity and seeing what works and what can be done. Fresh Guacamole is such a film – short, creative, fun and technically impressive, I hope it serves as a gateway for viewers to other similar cool stop-motion projects.