A Year in Shorts Day 6: "Oktapodi"

When you decide to dedicate a year of your life to covering short films, you find yourself hit with the realization that you're going to have to spend more time writing about most of them than it takes to watch them. And in the case of today's short, you'll probably spend more time reading about it too!


(via imdb)


Oktapodi is a 2007 French short about a pair of lovestruck Greek octopuses trying to escape from a restaurant delivery man, which is frankly the sort of premise that animation was made for. Who wouldn't want to watch that?



If Oktapodi reminds me of anything, it'd probably be the classic Tom and Jerry shorts, with its silent protagonists, madcap energy and pleasantly dark sense of humor. None of the gags ever quite reach that level of inspiration, but the spirit is there, helped along by a bouncy score from Kenny Wood. Plus, at three minutes it's a breezy watch. If anything, it leaves you wanting more.

Of course, the animation isn't perfect, but you can't hold that against the film. Oktapodi started life as a student film directed by (deep breath) Julien Bocabeille, François-Xavier Chanioux, Olivier Delabarre, Thierry Marchand, Quentin Marmier and Emud Mokhberi, so of course it's not going to have the polish of a big studio production. If anything, that just adds to its charm.

In spite of all its considerable charm, Oktapodi would not win the Oscar that year, losing to the Japanese short The House of Small Cubes. But seeing as how that is arguably one of the greatest short films of all time, I definitely can't imagine there were any hard feelings about the whole affair.

Sometimes, it really is an honor just to be nominated.


Disclaimer: This blog is a not-for-profit work of criticism. All images and videos herein are property of their respective owners and are protected under Fair Use.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Song of the Week #15: "Take My Breath Away"

Image
I’ll put myself on a consistent schedule for these things one day, I promise. In my defense, there are a lot of movies to catch up on, and isn’t that what Oscar Baiting is all about? For instance- until recently, I’d never seen the original Top Gun! But with Top Gun: Maverick holding its spot as the biggest hit of the year (probably only to be dethroned by Black Panther or Avatar ) and even potentially soaring into the obligatory crowd pleaser Best Picture slot, I figured it was time to see where things began. Because while the Oscars Top Gun: Maverick may win have yet to be decided, the first Top Gun only went home with one- for the love theme, “Take My Breath Away.” (via Wikipedia) Love themes for films have gone a bit out of style these days, although for a long time it seemed to be a surefire way to nab a Best Song nomination. Seriously, look through the Wikipedia article and count how many times you see "Title Seemingly Chosen at Random (Love Theme from Movie You Didn...
Read more

Song of the Week #6: "The Ballad of High Noon"

Image
I was finally able to catch Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast this weekend, and I have to say it certainly lived up to the hype. There’s a lot to love about this movie, from the gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, the exquisite performances from both the seasoned veterans and newcomers in the cast, to a script that’s brimming with heart and humor. But one aspect of the film I don’t see a lot of people mention is the way it incorporates footage from other films- most notably Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon, using not only a scene from the movie itself but scoring two pivotal scenes with the film’s theme song, the aptly-named (and Oscar-winning) “The Ballad of High Noon.” It was a bold choice to be sure, but who could blame Branagh? It’s a great movie, and a great song- and the subject for today’s installment in Song of the Week. (via Wikipedia) For those of you haven't seen High Noon... well, you really should get on that, it's a classic! Aside from being a taut, tightly edited thril...
Read more

Song of the Week #14- "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"

Image
I was watching Belfast with my friend last week, and- like all great films- it raised a lot of questions. Questions like, “Hey, remember the last time I watched Belfast and was inspired to write a blog post because of it ?” and “Hey, why haven’t I written anything Oscar Bait related in a while?” Well, luckily for all of us “The Ballad of High Noon” wasn’t the only Oscar-nominated song featured in Belfast. Unluckily for us, that other song just happens to be “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” (via Wikipedia) Readers of this blog will hopefully remember that I love a good movie musical. Sadly, those were few and far between in the 1960s. Oh sure, movie musicals certainly had a brief resurgence in those days. Many of them were big hits, both critically and commercially. Hell, Best Picture went to a musical on four separate occasions in that decade! But how many of them were actually any good? Not a lot. Oh sure, The Music Man is great fun and Mary Poppins is a classic. But far too many mu...
Read more