Plot Synopsis:
A vaudevillian’s act involving the juggling of dogs is no longer a hit. He and his partner must face a brutal villain and assorted obstacles in order to secure their future.
Full Review:
Last week, I discussed the very under-rated action film Collateral (see review HERE). So, I thought it would be fitting to talk about a fairly under-rated short film. And to go the extra mile, an under-rated animated short film! After winning the BAFTA for Best Animated Short in 1997, Stage Fright has sort of faded away into the fog produced by modern day CGI animated films. With this in mind, it brings me the (somewhat) pleasure to reintroduce this quirky, dark tale from yesteryear.
To begin, let’s get the obvious out the way. This is beautifully animated. Produced by Aardman, who are responsible for classic animated films such as Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run, the use of stop motion is stupendously executed and is utterly seamless. You may not know this, but I’m a HUUUGE fan of claymation; it is obvious how much work goes into making these types of films and I’m astounded each and every time this studio produces something that exceeds my expectations of what they can achieve. Although this was made in 1997, it is somewhat refreshing to see this type of animation put to use in a midst of CGI.
And I’m kind of glad this was made in 1997 as opposed to modern day. Why? Because chances are this would’ve got shunned out almost immediately by modern day audiences. The gothic themes that are being expressed are out of the norm for most animations which makes it stand out more than it would without. Also, it was very wise for the writers to set the film during Vaudeville times since it doesn’t make these gothic themes seem out of place nor unneccesary; they fit perfectly into the short and even lend themselves to create a stunning scene at the end. There’s another reason why they set the film during this time period, which acts as a minor subplot (which I’ll touch upon in a minute), but I’m glad they took advantage of this era to give us some delicious visuals.
Despite the film being under-rated, I feel this is under-rated for a specific reason. Particularly because it isn’t all that great!!! The film has several issues which mainly relate to the overall narative and the sub-par character development. I should say beforehand that I understand that it is much more difficult to make the audience feel for the characters through such a small space of time, considering that feature length have a runtime of two hours to fully flesh out their characters. But Aardman have been quite successful in this area in their previous short films, especially Wallace & Gromit and their TV series Creature Comforts, so it’s a bit of a shock to the system that these characters don’t deserve 12 minutes of my time in the slightest.
First off, the protagonist doesn’t do anything worthwhile. He just mopes and doesn’t really do anything significant; his only purpose is to trigger sympathy in the audience. His predictament is understandable and definitely relatable to some but as a character he just isn’t cutting it. Off to the dog basket you go!!! His stage partner had a bit more interesting devleopment behind her, but her voice was so annoying! It just bothered me since she narrates part of the film and it unfortunately did not work at all, and it didn’t really seem as if she was putting in a lot of effort to give the best performance she could; it just came across as painfully monotone. Finally, the villain. Good lord, this is a generic villain. He has no reason to act the way he does; he’s just evil for the sake of it. Hell, his appearance looks evil purely because they could animate someone of that design! The worst kind of villain is one without any purpose, and unfortunately the villain is not the only character in this short that serves little to no purpose; it’s the entire cast.
I mentioned how there were a few narrative issues, specifically the lack of completeness for some of the story’s sub-plots, including the one I was eluding to earlier. The story deals with our characters transitioning between the age of theatre to the age of cinema. Unfortunately, the conflict and drama that occurs because of this only lasts for approximately two minutes. After that, it sort of meanders in the background like a passer-by foolishly waving behind a news reporter. It appears to focus more time on developing the friction between our protagonist (who’s by no means a hero!) and our antagonist (who’s by no means a villain!). But the trouble is, this friction isn’t interesting. The gist of the main conflict of the film is that the protagonist is annoyed of taking orders from the antagonist. That’s it!!! Stage Fright doesn’t try to go beyond a fairly dull humanistic conflict, which makes me question why it wasn’t a live action short when it very easily could’ve been.
It’s a shame to see a misfire from Aardman Studios since part of my childhood was formed by watching their films. So with that in mind, I’m sort of glad I missed this since it would leave me feeling down for weeks on end and cautiously tearing apart my movie loving innocence. I mean, it isn’t awful. But it definitely isn’t anything of substance. It’s quite forgettable and, with the exception of one scene, doesn’t really win you over with what’s being projected on screen.
Fergie’s Final Fifteen:
Delightful animation that pleases the eye, but doesn’t help you forget about major overall issues.
I didn’t hate this short film but it could’ve been a hell of a lot better, especially for an award winning short. Luckily, Aardman have a vast choice of shorts and feature length films that are more memorable than this one so, although you won’t gouge your eyes out with Stage Fright, I suggest you check out those instead.
If you still want to check it out, you can do so by watching the video below:
FERGIE FILMS 