A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Madame Tutli-Putli

Date Viewed: 2/18/08

Details:

Written & directed by: Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski

Score: 1/2

The Review: Claymation/CGI; drama. Not so much the train ride from hell, but into. The title character is a timid but not incurious woman who embarks on a trip, not expecting to have to deal with some very unusual events. Silent in the sense of no dialog, but not at all silent in terms of special effects, invoking a slightly spooky or surrealistic alien mood. Clever characterization; the chess "game" is amusing.

Canadian. This is one of this year's (2008) five Oscar-nominated animated shorts, along with Meme les Pigeons vont au Paradis, Moya Lyubov, I Met the Walrus, Peter and the Wolf, all available to the general public via digital video release into selected theatres (for the third year) from Magnolia. The highlights for me were My Love for artwork and Peter and the Wolf for characterization, but in general, this year's collection didn't seem to click quite so well as in previous years. Yes, each has its own distinctive signature quirk, animation style, and twist on the expected storyline -- it's easy to see why this broad representation was nominated. But it's hard to know what else was in the running through the year, and there's nothing that sticks out as prominently as my memories of The Passenger (from 2007), or especially 9 (from 2006). Maybe it's because there was no Pixar entry? The collection was reasonably good, overall, and an entertaining mix.

(22-Feb-08)

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