Very well executed

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

When you've only got three minutes to tell a story, you'd better make it count. Pixar Studios has always excelled at such an efficient brand of storytelling: 'Geri's Game (1997)' is a masterpiece in four minutes, and 'For the Birds (2000)' and 'Lifted (2006)' have always been crowd- pleasing favourites. 'Kiwi! (2006)' is a student film by Dony Permedi, and it was produced in much the same mould. The short certainly looks like a student film, the CG animation terribly crude by modern standards (though, admittedly, it's unfair to compare any animated film to the standards of Pixar). However, the technical detail doesn't necessarily matter, as long as it succeeds in telling an emotionally-absorbing story. This it does pretty well. An ambitious little kiwi, long confined to the earth by his measly ratite wings, fulfills his lifelong ambition to fly – or, at least, to approximate the sensation of flight. The moment of success is oddly touching, and the single tear that slips from beneath his eyelid would be familiar to anybody who's ever achieved his lifelong dream. Still, I didn't find 'Kiwi!' quite as life-affirming as many viewers seem to have – for me, it was an amusing little aside, and certainly not a bad way to spend three minutes of my time.

just awesome!! It's been a while since I've encountered something a marvellous animation-short, that tells such a great story in just a couple of minutes. It has all the elements which made this sweet little KIWI touched so many people: Humor and drama and everything in between. I started off screaming from laughter by the way he (she?) moved and its persistence in the undertaking of this enormous task (!), but was also choked by the drama which evolved, and the inescapable ending that was (wisely enough not graphically exploited), the distant sound of KIWI hitting the ground was chilling and heartbreaking and truly had an impact. But hey... I'm one who have always cried and laughed at animation movies since way back in 1953, when I was 3. And still I enjoy this art after 55 years and will, till the day I die probably.Let's hope the talent of this guy will be recognized and that he will be given the chance to make more movies that really tell a story and move people all over the world. He deserves this BIG TIME. I only saw this movie for the 1st time a couple of days back (June 06, 2008) and it had by then been viewed over 17.5 million times at Youtube. That's a lot of THUMBS UP and one heck of a standing ovation!

In the time and age of cookie-cutter-CGI "comedies" featuring talking animals and supposedly cool pop culture comments, the magic of what animation can really achieve is often forgotten. Only Pixar reminds us continually of the wonderful opportunities animation has in its storytelling, both in its visuals and its characters. Yet I can think of no animation film outside of Pixar classics such as "Toy Story" 1 & 2 or "Monsters. Inc." that takes you from laughing to crying to the place in between - and in 3 minutes nonetheless."Kiwi!" shows how it's done. For starters, its title (and single) character is silent - no silly one-liners here. And yet, he is a fully developed character and the fact that he gets characterized simply via mimic and gestures is one of the many wonderful things the creator has achieved. We know everything we kneed to know about kiwi - his dream and what it means to him. The animation is simple but distinct. Kiwi's big expressive eyes endear him to the viewer as does his resourcefulness in his preparations. The animation's clarity adds to the overall effect and the theme music is great also.One should not talk about details of the story for fear of spoiling the experience. Again, it's a simple one, almost fable-like. It uses its diminutive bird protagonist to say something profound about the human condition - how far one would go to achieve one's dreams. By the time a tear shows in Kiwi's eyes - there will be tears welling up in yours as well.It might sound like hyperbole, but it really isn't. Go to YouTube and see this - it is three minutes of animation perfection.

A small, flightless kiwi makes the finishing touches to a lifetime of work as he prepares to fulfil his one, overriding ambition and dream.I shan't really get into the plot but it does become apparent what the dream is and how it is to be achieved very quickly within this film. Then the dream is fulfilled and before you know it the film is over. To simply say what it is about risks it sounding obvious and corny and would rather take away from the strength of delivery from Permedi. Overegging the cake would have ruined the story by pushing the emotion too much but by having everything simplistic, it comes over as much more genuine and quite touching.The kiwi is a visually limited character but this doesn't matter so much because where Permedi is not able to bring us Pixar quality graphics, what is brought out is a character. The idea is sweet and immediately tells us of a simple goal and a lifetime of work towards it with dedication and hard work. The actual dream is delivered with no overblown delivery but rather with a single tear, which makes it all the more touching for the viewer.A simple short film perhaps but one that benefits from this approach as the restraint shown in not pushing the emotion and allowing the viewer to be touched by the wider idea rather than a specific musical score, camera shot or other technique.