Sadly Over-hyped

recommended

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The story, such as it is, isn't really the reason to see DELIVERY. I'll summarize its anti-industrialization message and then get on to what was exceptional about the film.An old man lives in an industrial nightmare of a city and suddenly he's given an odd package. Inside is the ability to make the city all over any way he wishes. And so he makes everything pretty and back to nature--but no mention is made as to what happened to all the other people (were they killed?) or how he expects to live like anything other than a caveman without some industrialization.However, these questions mar the film's strengths--which certainly aren't the story. Instead, the short film has one of the best and most dramatically moving sound tracks I've ever heard from a short. And, while not quite as dramatic, the CG effects are superb. A lovely film to look at with a weak and rather fairy tale-like and simplistic message.

I can't stand films that oversimplify problems and offer juvenile ways of solving them. That approach does not help at all.Here's the theme of this laughably myopic flick: Pollution is bad! Solution: get rid of all the pollution!!!!Seriously, that's as deep as this gets. If you're an idiot who doesn't already realize that "pollution is bad!" then sure, go ahead and watch this film. But to the rest of us--a world of people who are struggling to find answers to this complex problem of how to reverse the damage we have done whilst continuing to thrive as a society--this film is little more than a child's notion of how to save the world.It reminds me of the idiots who parade around with catchy picket signs like "make love not war!" and "flower power!" (the latter of which is *literally* the theme of this movie). Oversimplifications like this do not help.A few words about the graphics: initially impressive but somewhat shoddy on closer inspection. Someone obviously spent a lot of time rendering these images, but he or she failed to pay attention to the details that would have made it realistic. For example, when the man walks, he seems to be weightless because the animator did not realize that people slump slightly when their feet hit the ground. Overall I guess it's a good first attempt, but the animator should study human movement more carefully before trying again. I've seen Atari videogames that are more impressive.

"Delivery" reminds me of a short story I read in high school. It was about a village who found a hole in the ground that had almost no end. To restore their environment, they threw all of their waste into the hole, only to realize that everything they throw in there comes right back down from the sky. In this case, however, an old man lives in an isolated area where there is nothing but his house overlooking an industrial little city. He gets a delivery from the city and in it he finds a strange box. He opens this box and discovers that it is actually a gateway to the sky above the city. So after thinking hard, he puts his hand in the box and restores the environment.There is no telling how far filmmakers will go when they find a good idea. In this case though, the idea was good but already taken, the animation is great but minimal, and the only thing that really got my attention is the score. This is a film that sends a blatant message about the environment but offers no emphasis on the character in the story. If they were to make this character look interesting, why not then make him a little deeper? He speaks nothing, he dreams nothing, he thinks nothing. We only know that he likes to water his plants.At the beginning of the movie, it offers no real insight as to where the delivery came from. Who sent it and why, or why it's been sent to that specific man. Surely someone from the city wouldn't want to send someone a package where they literally become God to their city. Unless of course that person happens to be some menacing maniac. This of course isn't established and as a result we as the audience choose to ignore it. Another thing I found questionable is the use of space in this movie. We feel very trapped and blocked off from the outside world, yet the man lives in a house that has nothing around it, no houses, no people, no roads."Delivery" is a sort of allegory about our current environment and the philosophy of what we would do if we were God. Though to me it lacks much of the drive that most animated shorts can create, it does play nicely as a very artistic expression. Like aforementioned, the animation is great and the score is brilliant. But what it does not show, it does not attempt to explain. And that's a bit weak.