Adam

This short was nominated for an Academy Award and is well worth watching, though it was probably about a minute too long or thereabouts. It's often amusing, but drags in spots. Interesting idea with excellent animation, but uneven and tedious at times. Recommended.

On hearing stories about Adam and Eve, I used to wonder how they survived in such loneliness. Isn't it dull to be with one person on a vast planet, at least after a while? Adam, the 1991 short dispelled my questions. It seems God or rather the Hand of God had an active participation in Adam's life. We see a clay Adam being taught how to act like a human, understand the concept of gravitation and the fact that the earth is round. We also see him being tormented by God at times- and in the end, we get a surprise from the Hand of God.

Six minutes of entertainment, a fat six rating for 'Adam.

My Rating: 6/10

Considering that the film is called ADAM, you can probably assume this animated short is supposed to be a strange retelling of the Creation story. However, instead of God, you have the hand of the animator dropping a simple claymation man onto a small newly formed planet. From there, the poor clay creature is mercilessly messed with by the nasty hand. In the end, in a sick twist, the hand realizes that Adam is lonely and creates a mate--you just have to see it to appreciate it.

This short has both a lovely sense of humor and is very creative. In light of this, it seems appropriate that it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short of 1993.

Adam is the story of the first man on the planet Earth, who is known better with his female counterpart Eve. Adam, the short claymation film from Aardman animation is more about Adam and God and how the two got along, and how lonely Adam was with no female, or anyone for that matter.

The short starts off with God, who is portrayed by the hand of film artist Nick Upton, making Adam out of clay. He sticks him on the world, which is only about 10 times as big as Adam himself and is nothing but a ball of clay. There is no talking here, so anything that would be said is acted out instead. Adam does various things, like try to travel around the world, which takes him only a few seconds, and throws a piece of the Earth which flies around the Earth until stopped by his head. Adam becomes lonely and asks God to make him a companion, which ends in a silly, but effective ending.

This is a very slapstick reliant short. Adam is like one of the 3 Stooges and does amusing things either ending in him getting hurt or acting goofy. I wouldn't call the humor hilarious, but it's quite amusing. The animation is good, with Adam being the only main clay animated character, and God being a stop motion hand. You can find this on the Creature Comforts shorts compilation DVD, and if you're a fan of Aardman animation, or just a fan of animation in general, you'll be sure to enjoy this.

My rating: *** out of ****. 6 mins.

This 5-minute film short is one of 4 different shorts on one VHS tape by Aardman Animations, the group that has given us the Wallace and Gromit animations.

"Adam" is a whimsical look at the creation of man. We see a rather small (compared to the size of the real Earth) blue-green crater-pocked ball of clay. Onto it the hand (and arm) of God (but not really God) places this lifeless figure on the top, it falls, He picks it up, eventually it gets the hang of standing up, and then it explores this new world. Then we wonder, will we see him get his mate??

At only 5 minutes running time it doesn't require much effort to stick with it. Nothing Earth-shaking but a fun 5 minutes.