TobyDavid

Like most modern adaptations of Shakespeare, I expected this to be awful. Boy, was I wrong! This was terrific and really entertaining.

This was an incredibly beautiful and moving piece. The language is Spanish, but one does not have to understand Spanish to fully appreciate this masterpiece.

This is a story about a little boy with serious physical limitations and the little girl who showed him how to experience the world he had been denied. The boy arrives at school and is shunned or ignored by all the children except one Maria. Maria befriends him and uses her imagination and love to give him the gift of fun and humanity.

The animation is so well done that the characters are humanized. Maria is so very charming and wise, but still such a little girl.

The film won the 2014 Goya award for best short film animation.

I thought that they did a remarkably good job with this variation on the theme of "A Star is Born." There are three main ingredients that combined to make this twisted fairy tale believable.

First, with only few minor rolls, none of the characters were completely despicable nor completely sympathetic.

Second, Elsa Pataky's physical appearance. She always looks appropriate in ways that I would not have thought possible. Most of it is good acting, but there is also skillful makeup and wardrobe.

Finally, the sets and locations are impressive and believable. The humorous exception, here, is their rechristening of the Beverly Hills Hotel as the "Everly Hotel". It looks like there should be a "B" hidden behind the foliage.

Incidentally, there are a few unexpected twists and turns along the way, as well as few more-or-less predictable "surprises."