The Big Snit

This hugely entertaining short is considered one of the best shorts ever, and I certainly won't argue with that. Even in a country where top-notch animated shorts are created with regularity, this film still manages to stand out. If you ever get the chance to view this film, please do so. It's only ten minutes long, and yet it contains a man who is obsessed with saws, a woman who vacuums the bathtub, and a nuclear war. What more could you want in a film?

This is a masterpiece. 'The Big Snit' is a crazy, weird, hilarious and eventually touching look at an old married couple and their quiet life, who argue over sawing and scrabble while a nuclear war rages on outside. Everything in this great animated short stands out as memorable: The eye shaking of the wife, the vacuuming binge, the husband's saw fetish (keep an eye on those backgrounds!), the very verbal cat, the demented game show, the "informative" news anchor, the "beautiful" accordion serenade and the moving and memorable ending. I am so glad I found 'The Big Snit', which is hands down one of the greatest works of film ever produced.

This film is all about humans. This film stayed as my all time favorite short cartoon since!...

Isn't it the simplest things that make life so much more interesting?! We humans are so soft, compassionate, funny, caring to each other one moment -- we invent the most beautiful and amazing machines to kill as many people as possible with least effort the next. In our short lives, we destroy our world, each other and often, our own lives, than get together, try fixing what we've destroyed. Most of the time, there is nothing left to fix!

This film entertain, educate and even help us realize what is wrong in our lives (with us)! Life in general is short and can be even shorter! The ending of his movie is way too optimistic I am afraid.

I love Richard Condie's mind and what he makes happen with it!

Enjoy

H.K.

Anyone who has ever played Scrabble with a loved one will know just how dangerous it can be if someone has a nice seven letter word and the other a collection of vowels that might only make a word used by a kid in a playground! Well that's what happens here when the couple are having a game and he is stuck. She's bored waiting, so goes and hoovers their home whilst he puts the television on and watches some of his favourite pastime - sawing! Yes, that's using a saw to cut through things. Not surprisingly, it has a rather soporific effect on him (and their dog) and when he awakes after a few idyllic dreams of days gone by, he takes a quick squint at her letters but is caught. She throws a bit of a paddy and he has to find a way to placate her. Meantime, the television announces that there's a nuclear war ongoing and that they mustn't smoke! It's a simple animation with bulging bodily features and a slightly surreal slant to it before a denouement that I did rather enjoy.

This is a very strange little short film that initially didn't impress me. From a purely aesthetic point of view, the animation here certainly ain't pretty--though after a while you notice that the simple and silly drawings do possess a certain odd charm. That's probably because with the script as screwy as this one, the animation works.

The film shows an older couple sitting at the table playing Scrabble. At the same time they are fixated on this game or other bizarre pursuits (such as the husband's compulsion to saw things--even the chair and table)! And all of this stuff occurs as the television warns of pending atomic annihilation--Armageddon is definitely here! Naturally, the neighbors are screaming and running amok--during which time the couple obliviously continues with this idiotic game. Heck, even their cat knows the end is coming as the couple begin bickering about who may or may not have cheated--leading to a very surreal ending indeed!! The film deserves kudos for both being unique as well as very funny. While it did not win the Oscar, it was nominated for Best Animated Short--which it richly deserved.