It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

"Histoires de bus" or "Bus Story" is a 10.5-minute animated short film from 2 years ago. The National Film Board of Canada is still going strong it seems, even if this one did not get any big awards attention. It is written, directed and voiced by a filmmaker named Tali and I must say I usually don't like it when they go with pseudonyms really. Anyway, her work here is fine. There are no truly great moments, but this little movie has some charm and I enjoyed it overall. It is about a woman who lived her childhood dream of being a bus driver, but really runs into a lot of obstacles (some alive), a mean boss and all kinds of rude passengers when she finally managed to become a bus driver. Will she stay in the job? Watch for yourself. I give this one a cautious thumbs-up. Pretty decent watch.

The concluding short for the Oscar nominated animated short film special and the respective "highly commended" segment is, by far, the strongest of the latter; Bus Story tells the story of Fatty, a woman who has always dreamed of being a bus driver and is tested incomparably with her latest gig. Her boss, nicknamed Killer, gives her a boss with a faulty clutch and little training on the neighborhood's rough terrain, especially in the winter time. Fatty is also somewhat disillusioned by those she's taxiing around, as many of them are quiet or ungrateful children. Nonetheless, she remains positive and grateful of her new gig and decides to keep at it, even if certain occurrences, many of which are slightly dark in context to the short, don't go in her favor.Bus Story has reiterated a point I've long made to my friends, which is that driving a bus is a pretty thankless job, especially a bus full of schoolage kids. Rarely do the kids say "thank you" to the selfless driver, only offer criticism when he/she fails to show up exactly on time or early, and constant chatter and noise on the bus makes it difficult for the driver to concentrate on the road. Combine that with all the stress that one accident or false move can make it so you never get behind the wheel of a bus for the rest of your life and it's an underrated, stressful job. Bus Story shows that through light-hearted, occasionally dark humor and a fun animation style. It's a thoroughly pleasant endeavor that gets by on the charisma and persistence of its naive character, and makes it so we enjoy the time we spend with her and also learn of her struggle.Directed by: Tali.

Why is it that whenever a woman gets a chance to make a short movie, it always has to be a sappy retelling of her own personal life? While male directors make thrillers and comedies and musicals and sci-fis about all sorts of strange characters; women only want to make movies about themselves, and whether you're watching the Oscar nominated shorts or a bunch of shorts from film students, it's always the same. Short movies made by women, are all about the director's own life stories.This wouldn't have been a problem, had all female filmmakers lived spectacularly interesting lives, but sadly this is not the case, and time and time again I've had to sit through terrible films like this, where a woman tells her "fascinating" story, about the time she drove a bus. Whoohoo, please tell me more about how you had trouble shifting gears.You see the same trend amongst bloggers: Men blog about politics and technology and cars and all kinds of stuff. Women blog about themselves, because they think they're such special snowflakes.Yuk.

"Bus Story" is my favorite of the commended films. I'll be very honest, however, the art style is very crude and looks rather poor compared to all the other films shown at this special presentation. But, it manages to be very entertaining and clever--and a bit dark in places. I really enjoyed it though my daughter thought I was crazy because she didn't enjoy it very much. My best friend also wasn't so taken by this one as much as I was. I guess I just enjoyed the quirky style of the movie as it told a likable story about a person who always wanted to be a school bus driver...and learns it's not quite as much fun as she'd assumed it would be. I'd love to know what you think.