Oh dear. At two minutes I wasn't 'getting' this movie; at five minutes I realised I definitely wasn't enjoying it. Even the intro sequence had pained me, with its pinpoint of light meandering all over the place for what seemed like an endless time (we actually thought our DVD player had broken!).
By ten minutes I had surmised I couldn't even follow the bizarre mood of the film. I didn't understand its odd camera angles, recoiled from its unlikeable main characters (who were also drawn to be far too grotesque), and the non sequiturs of the script just messed up any storyline. So I decided to persist no more, and hit the power 'off' button.
The main problem was that the DVD's artwork had marketed the film in a particular way, that turned out to be grossly misleading. The artwork was made with a bold font and cheery prime colours, had illustrations of fun-looking birds on the front, and a sassy tag line of "Feathers will fly". In other words it looked like a standard animation film: fun, great for kids, with a comedic script to suit the roster of British actors in the cast. Instead, it turned out to be a VERY different style of film: sombre and laden with message, full of semi-artistic allegory and fable. Had I been expecting that - ie been in the mood to watch a 'worthy' film - I might have been able to handle the movie's symbolism and mystic tone. But I wasn't. And when the film wasn't even well put together, which I discovered as it continued, I simply had to give up on it. It was just a sequence of unrelated, disjointed scenes. A diatribe of a movie.
I don't even feel I can give the film any kind of a star rating at IMDb, as I only managed to digest a little of the total offering. And as it was initially a viewing failure because of misleading branding and advertising, we were not best pleased. Dishonesty is not the best policy! I hope the next animation film we pick up is made truer to its pictorial description.
By ten minutes I had surmised I couldn't even follow the bizarre mood of the film. I didn't understand its odd camera angles, recoiled from its unlikeable main characters (who were also drawn to be far too grotesque), and the non sequiturs of the script just messed up any storyline. So I decided to persist no more, and hit the power 'off' button.
The main problem was that the DVD's artwork had marketed the film in a particular way, that turned out to be grossly misleading. The artwork was made with a bold font and cheery prime colours, had illustrations of fun-looking birds on the front, and a sassy tag line of "Feathers will fly". In other words it looked like a standard animation film: fun, great for kids, with a comedic script to suit the roster of British actors in the cast. Instead, it turned out to be a VERY different style of film: sombre and laden with message, full of semi-artistic allegory and fable. Had I been expecting that - ie been in the mood to watch a 'worthy' film - I might have been able to handle the movie's symbolism and mystic tone. But I wasn't. And when the film wasn't even well put together, which I discovered as it continued, I simply had to give up on it. It was just a sequence of unrelated, disjointed scenes. A diatribe of a movie.
I don't even feel I can give the film any kind of a star rating at IMDb, as I only managed to digest a little of the total offering. And as it was initially a viewing failure because of misleading branding and advertising, we were not best pleased. Dishonesty is not the best policy! I hope the next animation film we pick up is made truer to its pictorial description.