How fitting it is to watch this right after Bolsonaro’s conviction, given its scathing critique of authoritarian militarism in Brazil.
This animated film has such a unique pencil-and-watercolor art style that makes for some incredible imagery from scene 1, relying on that for its dialogue-free story. Everything from the character designs to the rainbow colors sprinkled all over the plain white backdrops is just so purely whimsical in the ways that only the greatest family animated films can be. The use of sound effects mixed with the musical score is also so unique in conjunction with the already-artful visuals; many scenes could work so well individually as solid short films. You could watch this with either the picture or sound off and it would make for a stunning sound collage or visual art piece.
Going in, I expected it to lean even more heavily into the more childlike wonder it sets up early on—think Flow, another excellent dialogue-free indie animation—but got something darker and more mature for a modern family-oriented animation. As the titular boy explores the titular world, he starts to discover the militarism that is conquering his country, and the art style itself takes a darker tone accordingly. The lack of dialogue, here replaced by backwards-talk right out of a Sims game, only enhances the sheer confusion and fear in the boy as he discovers it. On one hand, being a child leads him to not understand this situation, but on the other hand, he knows it’s not a natural occurrence. One metaphorical moment involving a battle between two birds, one a colorful colored-penciled, curved creature representing the country’s people, and the other a black, perfectly angular, fascistic menace representing the government and military, complete with guns for wings, is phenomenal. Scenes like this are enough to dispel the notion that animation is “just for kids”. This scathing social critique, paired with a touching family story that goes back and forth through time in subtle ways, tugs at the heartstrings, and much more so than I expected. This was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, during a competitive lineup where any of the films nominated would have been fair game (the winner was Inside Out, which was a worthy win), and it’s always great to see a less mainstream, non-Disney animation get the recognition it deserves.
How fitting it is to watch this right after Bolsonaro’s conviction, given its scathing critique of authoritarian militarism in Brazil.
This animated film has such a unique pencil-and-watercolor art style that makes for some incredible imagery from scene 1, relying on that for its dialogue-free story. Everything from the character designs to the rainbow colors sprinkled all over the plain white backdrops is just so purely whimsical in the ways that only the greatest family animated films can be. The use of sound effects mixed with the musical score is also so unique in conjunction with the already-artful visuals; many scenes could work so well individually as solid short films. You could watch this with either the picture or sound off and it would make for a stunning sound collage or visual art piece.
Going in, I expected it to lean even more heavily into the more childlike wonder it sets up early on—think Flow, another excellent dialogue-free indie animation—but got something darker and more mature for a modern family-oriented animation. As the titular boy explores the titular world, he starts to discover the militarism that is conquering his country, and the art style itself takes a darker tone accordingly. The lack of dialogue, here replaced by backwards-talk right out of a Sims game, only enhances the sheer confusion and fear in the boy as he discovers it. On one hand, being a child leads him to not understand this situation, but on the other hand, he knows it’s not a natural occurrence. One metaphorical moment involving a battle between two birds, one a colorful colored-penciled, curved creature representing the country’s people, and the other a black, perfectly angular, fascistic menace representing the government and military, complete with guns for wings, is phenomenal. Scenes like this are enough to dispel the notion that animation is “just for kids”. This scathing social critique, paired with a touching family story that goes back and forth through time in subtle ways, tugs at the heartstrings, and much more so than I expected. This was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, during a competitive lineup where any of the films nominated would have been fair game (the winner was Inside Out, which was a worthy win), and it’s always great to see a less mainstream, non-Disney animation get the recognition it deserves.
