Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Paperman (Disney short)


I don’t normally review shorts by themselves, especially when I’ve seen them before another film, but for those of you who don’t care to see “Wreck-It Ralph”, I urge you to seek out “Paperman” when it finds its way into release.
Combining computer and hand-drawn animation techniques, “Paperman” is a sweet and funny love story that beats any romantic comedy I’ve seen in recent memory.

A man and a woman meet on a train station in what appears to be 1950’s New York.  A paper from a file the woman is carrying blows free and hits him in the face.  They laugh, but soon a paper from his file flies and lands on her face leaving a lipstick print on it.  As the man looks at it, she enters the train and apparently exits his life before he could even learn her name.

Later at work, he is obsessing over her, much to his boss’s dismay.  Then, by chance, he spies the woman in a building across the street.  He attempts to catch her attention with paper airplanes, but he fails until the elements come to his aid.

The story is absolutely charming, done in black and white with a new technique called “final Line advection”.  I would definitely expect to see this charmer in the Animated Shorts category in next year’s Oscar ceremony.

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