Pretty Good

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This 8-minute short film from almost 20 years ago is the sad evidence that it somewhat did not really matter what the National Film Board of Canada would come up with, they'd always get an Oscar nomination regardless of the quality. This was one strange cartoon here, but not so strange it was interesting, but so strange it just really sucked. First of all, the animation was a disaster and the main character was almost painful to look at with his giant nose. The supporting characters were even worse visually. I have to say I am not the greatest fan of Richard Condie's first nomination, but this one here is almost an insult. Seriously, what was the Academy thinking. Even for a student film, this would not be a good achievement. The language here is Italian, because the main character keeps singing opera. Animation and opera is not a common occurrence at all, but some of the most famous Warner Bros. cartoons from long before "La Salla" showed us how it can be done. This one here certainly does not. The setting does not fit, there are no costumes, no makeup nothing. And last but not least, the general premise of the story is not bad in terms of catastrophe coming in when he opens that fateful door, but everything beyond that, all the small ingredients that make a story work are rotten here as well. A sorry excuse for a movie and certainly one of the worst Oscar nominees I have ever seen. Thumbs down.

Although this film is only about a dozen years old, the CGI technology appears ancient since computer generated animation has progressed so much since then. While today we expect high quality graphics, back in 1996, software to create such work was not widely available and had to usually be written by hand as Pixar's TOY STORY had only come out the year before. Today, even the home user can make animation that looks much better at a fraction of the cost! Unfortunately, while I admire Richard Condie and the rest of the film makers for attempting such an early project as well as basing the character designs on Condie's earlier hand-drawn animated films, the overall project looks unfinished and very random. In fact, instead of a coherent film, the effort looks more like a rough product that still needs polishing--especially the story. It looks like something animators might show off at a trade show or to financial backers--not a film for the public. At times, objects just seem to randomly pass by at the oddest angles and at other times the entire screen tilts from side to side--like they were experimenting to see what they could do--not make a commercial film. So much of it made little sense and compared to other Pixar shorts of the same era (such as the Luxo, Jr. shorts and even the much earlier KNICK KNACK), LA SALLA comes up wanting. While I do understand that at the time Pixar was the "big boy" in the CGI field, this project just doesn't even come close and isn't particularly entertaining (aside from watching the guy shooting cows--that is pretty cool). How it was nominated for an Oscar is beyond me. A nice attempt, but that's about all.

Richard Condie has made a living from rather strange and eccentric (to put it mildly) shorts. This one, nominated for an Academy Award, is the strangest one I've seen to date. Sung as an aria, in Italian, I think, the subtitles are often hilarious and the short is excellent, if quite bizarre! Look for it, by all means. Highly recommended.