Kiwi!

In 1998, a beautiful CGI short called "Bunny" was made, with a beautiful message and beautiful CGI. Now, along comes "Kiwi", with the animation more simplistic, but the message still powerful.

Even though they are both very different, both "Kiwi" and "Bunny" are animated shorts to be treasured. Watch both of them, on Youtube if you can!

This animated short starts with a kiwi pulling a large rope. What on earth is he doing? Yep, I asked the same question. Just watch on and you will see. There are many surprises in store, some happy - and some not...

I love this short because it is an easy length and not too "draggy" and because of the simplistic but warming CGI, the kiwi, who is a very cute character, the theme of the short and the ending, which waters your eyes. There is a little bit of mixed humour in this as well, which is not found in "Bunny".

Another thing which fascinates me about this short is that six people are included in the credits, three who made it and three in the acknowledgements. I think it was very clever how three people made this (meanwhile the crew for "Bunny" was a huge amount - but then the CGI was more advanced, even eight years before this was made).

I recommend this to people who like kiwis, see the beauty in animation and who do not mind emotional short films too much. Enjoy "Kiwi"! :-)

In the time and age of cookie-cutter-CGI "comedies" featuring talking animals and supposedly cool pop culture comments, the magic of what animation can really achieve is often forgotten. Only Pixar reminds us continually of the wonderful opportunities animation has in its storytelling, both in its visuals and its characters. Yet I can think of no animation film outside of Pixar classics such as "Toy Story" 1 & 2 or "Monsters. Inc." that takes you from laughing to crying to the place in between - and in 3 minutes nonetheless.

"Kiwi!" shows how it's done. For starters, its title (and single) character is silent - no silly one-liners here. And yet, he is a fully developed character and the fact that he gets characterized simply via mimic and gestures is one of the many wonderful things the creator has achieved. We know everything we kneed to know about kiwi - his dream and what it means to him. The animation is simple but distinct. Kiwi's big expressive eyes endear him to the viewer as does his resourcefulness in his preparations. The animation's clarity adds to the overall effect and the theme music is great also.

One should not talk about details of the story for fear of spoiling the experience. Again, it's a simple one, almost fable-like. It uses its diminutive bird protagonist to say something profound about the human condition - how far one would go to achieve one's dreams. By the time a tear shows in Kiwi's eyes - there will be tears welling up in yours as well.

It might sound like hyperbole, but it really isn't. Go to YouTube and see this - it is three minutes of animation perfection.

This short is 11 years old and is one of the most profound works I've ever seen. The stunning juxtaposition of sincere happiness at an achievement followed by the utter desolation of realizing the Kiwi's life goal results in his complete destruction. This momento mori crescendos in subtleties known only in masterpieces with the ease and simplicity of a cartoon. Without uttering a single line, this short transmits the full range of delight to despair within seconds.

I cannot rate this high enough.

A kiwi, a little flightless bird, needs to know what fight would be. So he structures a pathway full of trees so he can sail off a cliff and fly over them. The beauty of his film is the incredible effort he expends in order to accomplish his wishes. It's about two minutes long and has a remarkable message.

just awesome!! It's been a while since I've encountered something a marvellous animation-short, that tells such a great story in just a couple of minutes. It has all the elements which made this sweet little KIWI touched so many people: Humor and drama and everything in between. I started off screaming from laughter by the way he (she?) moved and its persistence in the undertaking of this enormous task (!), but was also choked by the drama which evolved, and the inescapable ending that was (wisely enough not graphically exploited), the distant sound of KIWI hitting the ground was chilling and heartbreaking and truly had an impact. But hey... I'm one who have always cried and laughed at animation movies since way back in 1953, when I was 3. And still I enjoy this art after 55 years and will, till the day I die probably.

Let's hope the talent of this guy will be recognized and that he will be given the chance to make more movies that really tell a story and move people all over the world. He deserves this BIG TIME.

I only saw this movie for the 1st time a couple of days back (June 06, 2008) and it had by then been viewed over 17.5 million times at Youtube. That's a lot of THUMBS UP and one heck of a standing ovation!