User reviews

Priorities sees a man and his dog crash land on an island in a storm and then try to work out a way to get off and back to safety. The story, as the title suggests, is less about that than it is about the relationship between the man and his dog as they try to survive together. It is told in a couple of stages in the short running time and we do get a sense of their relationship and what it means to the man, but to be honest it doesn't really do much more than what is narratively obvious in that regard. So in one scene we see a choice made, and this is really the crux of it in terms of the plotting. Dog owners may bring their own emotions to it to add more, but for what the plot is, it doesn't do as much as you would hope.

The animation is a mixed bag too. On one hand it looks pretty good, with fluid movement and long flowing takes; however it looks too much like a video game for me to stop seeing it as such. The camera moves around the action and stays close to the main character in many ways, while the basic "look" of it also has an indie game feel. I did really care for this sense of constant movement, not just because of it feeling like a game (nothing wrong with that) but more that it limited the emotional impact of the content by not allowing the film to rest and feel.

It does have a certain sweetness to it and dog lovers may get more of the feels than others by virtue of what they bring to it themselves, but for me it was a bit too emotionally simple and the style of animation didn't seem like a good choice in terms of fitting with what it was doing in the narrative.

The story is more than touching and to praise the director represents the first temptation. But it has , maybe, not the most inspired style of animation and the story, the angles of camera for dramatic moments, the rain and the sound effects are the basic tools saving this correct short animation but not exactly serving its entire potential.

A good point - the face of man , remembering to me the Mesopotamian sculptures representing men.

The second virtue - the fair reflection of the connection man - dog. And, sure, the rain, the cave and the efforts to have the chance to escape from the wild area.

In short, corect animation.