I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
View MoreIt's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.
View MoreWhile it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
View MoreThe acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.
View MoreAn impressive short animation. from atmosphere to each detail. for the impecable story . and for the great level of realism. a film about delicate manner to discover the near reality. soft, precise, using a familiar warning. proposing a small world , so obvious ignored. and an old fashion story. in a laboratory. in the hunt for a bag.
View MoreThis is a lovely film with very nice CG animation. It begins with a rat following a cheese puff wrapper across the roof tops in a big city. By accident, the rat falls into some weird fully automated lab filled with white lab rats. The new rat is captured but with the intervention of the same wrapper, he is able to try to make his escape.How much you like this film will probably depend on your feelings about animals and animal testing. Though it's never clear what will happen to these rats, it seems as if the makers of the film have a strong anti-animal testing bias and it seems they are perhaps trying to influence the viewer accordingly. Because of my background in psychology (where we treated the rats wonderfully and didn't harm them in any way), I am always leery of films such as this one or THE SECRET OF NIMH that seem to offer simplistic messages that people who use lab animals are evil. However, I can't let my own background color my impression of this film too much. Despite a relatively weak story, the animation is super-impressive and the story well constructed. It is well worth a look.This film is one of the bonus shorts included with the wonderful DVD "A Collection of 2006 Academy Award Nominated Short Films"--a must have for fans of the genre.
View MoreThis is the animated story of a rather ordinary big city rat, struggling to survive. Getting food is a big part of that effort.There is an almost empty bag of cheese puffs, floating in the breeze, that catches the rat's attention. He sees the uneaten puff, and is attracted to it. The bag gets closer to a rotating roof ventilator, and the rat gets closer. Then, the bag slips through, and somehow the rat slips through also.What transpires after that is the meat of the story. The city rat finds himself in a strange, sterile world, of white rats and laboratory robots. Each rat has a bar code attached. It is clearly some type of experimental laboratory, where the rats are administered various substances and their performance measured.You have to watch the film to see what happens, it is very well animated, but havoc ensues. All the white rats are freed temporarily, and the city rat sees the one he has fallen in love with. While not everything is resolved to the satisfaction of the two rats, it is an interesting story, well-told in very nice animation.This is part of a collection on DVD, "A Collection of 2006 Academy Award Nominated Short Films" from my local library.
View MoreReally, I am not dismissing or disrespecting this animated short. It is interestingly drawn and he story sucks you in and keeps you, but it is not appealing enough that I would want to watch it a second time.The best thing I can say about this is that it held my attention all the way. The story isn't funny, isn't profound although it perhaps thinks it might be. It isn't as sad or romantic as some infer, either. I'm sorry, but I can't get choked up on a couple or rats who just met each other in a laboratory and are instantly in love, and then taken away.This is another odd animated film, a serious tale about a rat who follows an empty bag of some snack, like a Cheeto's, that would have a scent that would attract a rodent. We follow the rat's interesting journey - which it is - as he follows the scent and discovers some strange sights.
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