Das Rad

Perception is all about your perspective. This short allows you to see the world and the passage of time through the perspective of rocks, which might sound dry but is actually quiet amusing.

This film is a combination of stopmotion animation (one of my favorite styles) and digital animation. They blend the two seamlessly, not an easy feat.

This is one of those rare films that reward repeat viewings. Your eye catches different details each time and you start to appreciate the pain-staking attention to detail that the team of animators put into this work. You can pick it up over at www.Filmporium.com. The five dollar disk also includes the wickedly funny "Astronauts" and the Olympic event parody "Ski Jumping Pairs."

Das Rad (2003)

*** (out of 4)

Neat film received an Oscar-nomination for Best Animated Short. The film works on the basic idea that two piles of rocks, who can speak to one another, are fearing another ice age. The entire short is built around time going forward thousands of years and these rocks being there through it all. I guess it's fair to say you'll never really look at a rock the same way again and the next time you pick one up to throw it, there's a good chance you'll remember this movie and think about the history you're holding in your hands and ask what all has happened in the presence of that rock. The movie doesn't do anything overly special with the exception of the wonderful build up and the eventual execution. This is certainly the type of movie that makes you think after wards and the thoughts you have after the movie are probably going to be more impressive than the ones you have while watching it. This here is certainly a nice little gem that deserves to be seen.

While I won't go so far as to say this "deserved" the Academy Award for Short Animation more than any other nominee (it was a very good field and the winner, The Chubbchubbs, was also extremely good), I do consider this an extraordinary short and would have had no problems with it winning. In this, it becomes quite clear that time is truly relative and that longevity is all a matter of perspective. At times funny and unsettling (often in the same instant), you'll think about this for a while and really should watch it more than once. You'll never quite see rocks in the same way again. In a just and fair world, this would be readily available. Hopefully, it will be sometime soon. This has aired on the Sundance Channel as part of Shorts Program 114 and was also part of the initial program for The Animation Show still currently in release in some areas. By all means, see it if you can. Well worth the effort. Most highly recommended.

I have had the privilege of seeing all the nominees for Best Animated Short for the Oscars in 2003. What got me interested in seeing all of them is a review for THE CATHEDRAL (also a nominee) in which the reviewer complained that this film, not CHUBBCHUBB! deserved the Oscar. Well, after seeing them all, I really think CHUBBCHUBB! should have probably won, though DAS RAD is very, very close--so close that I really think the makers should be commended--especially since CHUBBCHUBB! was made by a huge corporation (the same people that made the CGI feature SURF'S UP) and DAS RAD was a much smaller scale production. Also, DAS RAD has one of the most original concepts I've ever seen. While CHUBBCHUBB! is funnier and probable more fun for the average viewer, DAS RAD makes you think and the idea of the world as seen through the eyes of large rocks is amazingly different. And what also was exceptional was the idea that rocks are such slow and permanent creatures that the world around them appears to go at lightning fast speed! Clever and wonderful--see this short.

I really, really felt for these rocks. Seriously. They were imbued with so much personality, and I didn't want anything to happen to them. In addition, there was a skillful back-and-forth device that shifted the POV from the short-term human perspective to the rocks' long-term, uh, rocky perspective. Very cool, very skillfully done. If you told me a German film about rocks would be so charming and touching and funny, I'd have told you to take a hike, but it's true: this little film about rocks is a jewel.