A small bird with a fear of flying tries to avoid heading South for the winter.A small bird with a fear of flying tries to avoid heading South for the winter.A small bird with a fear of flying tries to avoid heading South for the winter.
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Amusingly animated and delivered even if it is a bit too gentle in some ways
This is the story of a bird called Dougal who has a secret fear of flying. Like others he lives in a bird box high in a tree, but his is the only one with a long ladder leading to the ground. When all the birds fly south for the winter, Dougal stocks up with supplies to stick it out, although a series of events force him to confront his fear, well, or at least confront the idea of having to confront his fear.
Fear of Flying is a nicely done animated short film which mixes cute animation with sharper humor to mostly good effect. The narrative device of a creature struggling with the idea of doing what comes naturally is not a new one (Antz probably being the biggest example) but it is still well used here. The writing produces some decent laughs at a couple of key moments which play up the silliness by overdoing some dramatics, but perhaps the cute-factor influences too much and it isn't as sharp as it could have been and seems overly gentle too often. This approach fits the animation though, which is very well done.
The legs of the characters feel a bit odd as they look like they have been digitally edited, but otherwise the birds etc all look like felt puppets, which is what they are. This mix of digital and the real works pretty well and I liked all the characters involved. The voice work is decent but is a little bit part of the film feeling softer than it otherwise would. Neither Doherty nor Duffin seem to bring much spark to their characters; they do well enough in a gentle way, but their voices never really stayed with me and I thought the animation did more to create character than they did. Conor Finnegan direction is good though, with nice awareness of good shots and tone – particularly impressive when you read more as to how it was made and learn how geographically wide the team members were.
Fear of Flying is a nicely done animated short film which mixes cute animation with sharper humor to mostly good effect. The narrative device of a creature struggling with the idea of doing what comes naturally is not a new one (Antz probably being the biggest example) but it is still well used here. The writing produces some decent laughs at a couple of key moments which play up the silliness by overdoing some dramatics, but perhaps the cute-factor influences too much and it isn't as sharp as it could have been and seems overly gentle too often. This approach fits the animation though, which is very well done.
The legs of the characters feel a bit odd as they look like they have been digitally edited, but otherwise the birds etc all look like felt puppets, which is what they are. This mix of digital and the real works pretty well and I liked all the characters involved. The voice work is decent but is a little bit part of the film feeling softer than it otherwise would. Neither Doherty nor Duffin seem to bring much spark to their characters; they do well enough in a gentle way, but their voices never really stayed with me and I thought the animation did more to create character than they did. Conor Finnegan direction is good though, with nice awareness of good shots and tone – particularly impressive when you read more as to how it was made and learn how geographically wide the team members were.
helpful•10
- bob the moo
- Apr 28, 2014
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- Miedo a volar
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- Runtime10 minutes
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