Review by bob the moo

This claymation short film starts with an old man, jolly off wine, coming into an empty art gallery and being quick to dismiss much of what he sees as rubbish. However as he walks around, the static images and works do more than remain this way and instead start to speak to him in different ways.

There is a point in this short film about the power of art to be alive and speak to the viewer and I mostly liked the idea behind this short where the various words come alive to the way that they are either silly, moving or everything in between. The idea is good and at points so is the short film – particularly in the sudden poignancy of the conclusion, however for me I found myself more appreciating the film and the idea than I did really enjoying it. The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly the animation. I appreciate it is now over 40 years old, but it is rather ugly in the delivery – in some cases it works (for example the transforming robot) but in others I found it as a barrier to watch – I know this is superficial and unfair to the content, but for me it was as such. The second thing that gave me pause was that some of the examples of the art coming alive didn't work – and again I use the transforming robot as an example, it seemed too silly and out of nowhere. Had all the examples had something to bring to the table it would have been better but again this robot example stuck with me as being out of place considering the good ending it was building to.

This won the Oscar for the year and in a way I do not begrudge it because I like the idea and aspects of the delivery, but I would be lying to say I did not struggle with some of the animation and the content at the same time. I appreciated it as a whole, but I did not necessarily enjoy it as such.