"One Small Step" is an American/Chinese co-production, actually these seem to be getting more frequent these days, from 2018 and this little movie is my new favorite short film from 2018. It's been a while since I really liked a new animated short, so I am glad it finally happened again. This film is also right now on the short list of potential Oscar nominees and I am sure I will be cheering for it greatly to make the cut and maybe even have a little chance for the win. We will see. Anyway, this was written and directed by Chesworth and Pontillas, both not very experienced filmmaker in their own right, but both have worked on many well-known full feature animated blockbusters and it's nice to see them transition their experience into this charming little tale we have here. It is pretty ironic that for me, "First Man", the film everybody was talking about about space exploration fell really flat and became disappointing while this one here impressed me a lot. The reason may be the heart it offers. This is something I found very frustrating to be missing almost entirely in Pixar's new Incredibles sequel and also in the little (also Asian/American) short film attached to it that will also have a shot atg the Oscars. But back to this one here: There is not much of a comedy approach in here, it is really all about drama, ambitions, dreaming and heart. It is in approximately eight minutes the story of a girl, eventually young woman who dreams of becoming an astronaut and is caringly supported by her dad for a long part of the journey. The fact that her mother is apparently dead also adds an invisible amount of sadness here. But back to the father. I really loved the playing with his daughter early on and also how he kept fixing her shoes. One of the best metaphors of the movie year 2018 how he literally helped her to keep going. Okay his fading health and death eventually may be a bit too much, but it is tough to fit such a life-changing event into such a brief movie that it evokes the emotion it should. They still did fine from that perspective I think. Also it may have been slightly too much they really had her go up in space eventually, sometimes a bit more subtlety could have been better. Also with naming her Luna. Luckily they did not name the film like that too, maybe because there was another pretty successful Luna short not too long ago. But it's all good. It does not take away anything from the film's quality for me. I think one problem this film could have is that in terms of the level of animation it is not as good as Pixar or the best the year has to offer. There is no denying. But like I said earlier, I am really willing to ignore that because heart and a touching story is ten times as important for me as the looks are. And boy did this little gem deliver in that department. I highly recommend the watch. It is also a wonderful choice for a movie night between fathers and daughters. And for everybody else as well. Don't miss out. By the way, there's no spoken language or dialogues in here, so you can enjoy this wherever you are from. But it doesn't need either anyway, the beautifully subtle soundtrack is really all the noise the story needs.
Review of One Small Step
