Charming and brutal

A Brilliant Conflict

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

I must admit that I did not enjoy too much "The Secret Life of Pets" last year and found it one of the more disappointing animated movies of 2016, so I certainly wasn't expecting too much for "Norman Television" here, a 4-minute (3.5 without credits) add-on short film that takes us into the world of Norman, the guinea-pig of the full feature film. But hey, perhaps as a guinea-pig owner, I may still see some quality in it. Nah not really. Norman is basically taking reality television to the next level, namely in 3D you could say and eventually even has a major impact on what happens to the human characters who really just seem to be puppets on Norman's strings it seems eventually. But neither the early comedy nor the final drama are too entertaining or even memorable. Jacq, Louati and Favela who made this one worked on other films in minor positions and this little film could have been a great application for them to perhaps get a job as key director/writer in a big prestige project, but they came somewhat short I guess. Oh yeah, final note Norman was voiced by Chris Renaud, a 2-time Oscar nominee and you maybe will recognize his voice from other projects he has worked on about certain small yellow creatures. But back to this one here: I give it a thumbs-down and don't recommend checking it out. Glad it was that short.