Papa est mort

This is a film that has lovely and very inventive animation. Other than that, there was absolutely nothing I liked about the film. The 3 points it earns are only for the animation, as the rest of the film is just ugly and throughly unpleasant--a hateful and nihilistic mess. It looks as if someone decided to make a film just to offend and make people mad or ill--and had no other purpose.

The story, such as it is, seems more an excuse to splice in images of people giving the British equivalent of the middle finger, showing lots of hard-core obscenities on the walls and maggots feasting on rotting food among other such repellent images. In many ways, this film is like The Sex Pistols of film-dom--just meant to be loud, nasty and offensive. And, naturally, some idiots thought this was art and nominated it for a BAFTA award. By this standard, I think I could make an animation of someone defecating and probably get a nomination. What a waste.

Reminded me very strongly of the worst aspect of childhood when I grew up in north London. Whatever school/whatever I found myself in I always found characters similar to Johnno-not as extreme-but that heart of mischevousness which could flip very quickly to viciousness.

I guess I am not alone in this. The film plays out a tale that is compusive viewing, though doubtlessly twisted.

The dialogue is deadpan and the animation pulls you in with its urban icons bluring in and around the characters.

Worth watching - others have panned this as too grim, but I am certain that you will know a real life johnno. More interesting are those that will recognise themselves in johnno...

This short film made quite an impression on me when I first watched it. I thought it was odd and quite different from others. It goes through a lot of memories and establishes a rather bleak tone.

Our narrator looks fondly back at his childhood in Liverpool and the antics of his best friend Johnno. Well known for being a showman and a keen one for joking and the like, Johnno starts to change for the worse after he announced that his father has died.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this film. I had seen it was an animation on the website and had assumed it would be an arty thing made by a newly graduated student - don't know why I assumed that, but I did. Happily this film was much better than that and when it finished it was very powerful despite the odd flaw. The plot is disturbing with the speed with which things go from childhood memory to something much darker. The reasons for the change are layered into the fabric well and only the end is a little unclear.

The animation is well used and very clever. A lot of the film is real action with animation used effectively at different points - in it's own right or to animate the digitally shot action. In some cases this is funny, in others it lets us see the monster inside each character and in others it is surprisingly violent and indicative of a mind that is being lost and surrounded by evil thoughts. I'm not a big animation fan but it worked very well here.

I struggled to place the voice the whole way through and was surprised to see it was Ian Hart. However he does really well with the voice over and really brought his character to life. The support cast are good and the lad who played Johnno really did a good job to bring the menace out of him.

Overall this took me by surprise. It is well written so as to allow the plot to build quickly and with force and was very cleverly directed. The animation is a mix of styles and is very cleverly used to portray different things - from a Betty Boop style vision on an ice-cream van to a `Peter and Jane' book to illustrate nice thoughts. The combination of all these things make it well worth a look.

One o disturbing films about changes o a young man, from childhood defined by shows and jokes to a terrible cruelty after a presumed lie.

A film about the monster from us, hidden, sleeping, free after the last link is broken because the death of father has new nuances at the end of film, with sparkles of fury and forms of revenge, behind a presumed terrible truth.

Short, admirable crafted and, scene by scene, just impressive.

One of films proposing a bucket of questions, pretending fair introspectation.

A story just working in impecable way and the voice of Ian Hart as perfect guide in this tunnel of hell. The conclusion remains profound personal for every viewer.