McDull dans les nuages

Its take on humour is laboured and contrived, which thrived on the absurdist and repetitive but ultimately running dry. It is so repetitive that the movie can be better employed as a language course in Cantonese. It is best illustrated in the the long and dreary sequences involving some calf muscles, or was it turkey calf muscles, spinning round and round in turnkeys.....

Having said that, its take on a coming-of-age and mother love story is more commendable despite its flaws. Having opening scene ripped off from Forrest Gump, I feared the worst for McDull. I feared the story would disneyfied (is there such a word? maybe degenerate wld suffice) into a feel good show, where everything grim and sad would suddenly turn gold, as if by magic. Here, we are not treated with a magic show, but with the reality of a mother's devoted love to her not-too-bright son and their struggles in life against a not-too-caring and unforgiving world.

In addition, its visuals were innovative. The fusion of cutesy cartoon and reality photography help to create a believable McDull universe in which animals and humans share their disillusioned lives together in a claustrophobic urban jungle which is more commonly known as Hong Kong in our universe.

I've seen this movie twice before. The first time, I found it tedious and boring because it was just another cartoon, somewhat similar to Disney cartoons. The evil of Disney...However, this summer I took a trip to Hong Kong and then watched McDull again. The second time around I found it way more interesting and actually funny. This movie has been called unfunny, but to understand McDull it helps to be able to understand Cantonese and to have visited HK since most of the jokes and the visuals are all about HK anyway. Per se, people who have never seen HK or don't speak Cantonese aren't going to find this funny because it's basically an inside joke about life in Hong Kong.

All in all, the movie's a cute affair, nice visuals, and they show some really good aspects of HK and some HK culture, as well as actual places in the city like the Peak Tram and the MTR, etc. The story's fine; about a pig growing up and reflecting back on his childhood. It's great for the kids because it's creative enough and the comically foolish McDull will appeal. It's worth watching even if it drags on needlessly.

The little pig McDull and his cousin McMug are huge favorites in Hong Kong, but this lovely and complex film is unlikely to get a distributor outside of Asia. More's the pity, because it's one of the richest of recent animated films, even counting Studio Ghibli's work. It starts as a charming, off-beat account of an extraordinarily ordinary kindergardener in Hong Kong and his his obsessed but loving single mom, animated with an eye-popping variety of techniques that convey perfectly the hallucinatory intensity of early childhood. (We see Mrs Mc charging through her work day as the heroine of a video game; and her cooking show--with every permutation of chicken, bun and paper imaginable--must be seen.) Soon, though, it takes shape as a memory picture, and deepens and darkens without ever losing its cockeyed playfulness.

The visual direction of Alice Mak, McDull's creator, is exceptional, and so is the superb music, borrowing heavily from Schubert, Schumann and Mozart in a perfect balance of absurdity and tears. At the end the film moves seamlessly into live action, bringing its meditations on the end of childhood, the disappointments of life, and the mysterious possibilities of joy to an open-ended close. I'm sure that I miss a lot of the humor, since I don't know Chinese; but the subtitles convey a surprising poetic feel that surely is even stronger in the original. Not for children; but don't miss it if you have the chance.

First animated feature I've seen from HK, and hopefully not the last. Brilliant and unconventional, with an amazingly whimsical style of narrated recalled episodes interwoven with introspective investigations and loads of imaginative tirades. Wonderful mix of styles and techniques in the rendering, covering pretty much the full gamut of potential animation disciplines. Great comic writing, lovely recurrent jokes, terrific voice talent and really excellent songs, especially the one about tasio bau (steamed pork buns). Excellent for the kids, heck, the whole family! Really smart stuff! And no, I'm not biased just because my favorite female comedian Sandra Kwan-Yue Ng is one of the voice talents in this. ;)

Visually, "My Life as McDull" is extremely innovative, blending 3D computer animation with 2D images and even live action. The film's dialogue and events are also fascinatingly idiosyncratic.

McDull is, true to his name, dull-witted, but the authority figures who govern him--his mother, the headmaster, his teacher, his bun-snatching coach--are all incompetent and selfish. The film sharply criticizes the assumption that adults are smarter and superior to children, yet its oddness keeps it from ever becoming preachy.

Consider the narration by the adult McDull. He may be smarter than his childhood self, but he regrets what he's learned, speaking mainly about how unhappy he is. "My Life as McDull" is as perceptive in its portrayal of childhood and aging as any film I've seen.