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Director: Floor Adams
Release date: February 23, 2019
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
Christopher is a man on the autism spectrum, He loves his model Stuka dive bomber airplanes, but he has difficulties with social relationships. When is older brother invites him along to a party, a whole new adventure for him starts.
Christopher’s autism is shown by a homunculus inside his head who has to look up and memorize everything and thus easily gets an information overload, for example when too much is happening at the same time during the party. Christopher clearly is as sympathetic as he is social awkward, but I cannot help but admire the patience of his love interest Gwen, who has to suffer a lot through Christopher’s erratic behavior.
‘Mind My Mind’ is a nice insight in the mind of a person on the autism spectrum, but succeeds not entirely or convincingly in making the audience believe he can function easily in society.
The designs are pleasant, although I found the homunculus too sketchy a character. The animation meanwhile, is fair, and focuses on the characters’ emotions and relationships. Despite being a Dutch-Belgian co-production, the voices are in English, and thus the film can be enjoyed by a large audience.
Watch the trailer of ‘Mind My Mind’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Mind My Mind’ is available on DVD
Director: Erica Russell
Release Date: 1994
Rating: ★★★★★
Review:
Six years after ‘Feet of Song‘ Erica Russell returned with another extraordinarily beautiful dance film, this time using three dancers in a triangular relationship.
During most of the dance two women compete for a man, and the film features several dances between the man and either one of the women, the two women together, and, in the end, all three together.
The fluency of the movement combined with the elegance of Russell’s paintwork make the film a delight to watch. During most of the film the three dancers remain recognizable as human forms, but at times they change into almost abstract forms, with a strong Bauhaus influence.
Despite the high level of abstraction ‘Triangle’ is a very sensual film, and one never loses the idea that the film is about three characters with solid bodies, no matter how sketchily drawn. Charlie Hart’s score fits the images very well with its quasi-African touch to it.
Watch ‘Triangle’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Triangle’ is available on the DVD ‘The Best of British Animation Awards 1’
Directors: Darren Doherty & Nick Smith
Release Date: 1994
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
In ‘The Wooden Leg’ a girl is born with only one leg. One day she gets a wooden leg for Christmas, but the leg has a will of its own…
‘The Wooden Leg’ is an animation film made directly on film (apparently using a wooden twig) with a wooden twig and ink on white paper, with the images reversed later from black on white to white on black (many thanks to Darren Doherty for clarifying the method below!). Thus it features very simple, but surprisingly effective designs, all consisting of white lines on a black canvas. Yet, Doherty & Smith manage to put a lot of emotion in their simply drawn characters. Despite the rather dark subject matter, the film retains a lighthearted feel and stays with the girl and her special bond with the leg. The animation is accompanied by an effective piano score by Mike Taylor.
Watch ‘The Wooden Leg’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘The Wooden Leg’ is available on the DVD ‘The Best of British Animation Awards 1’
Dr. Grob's Animation Review 