by Jake Bourgeois, Contributing Writer
I’ve always had a soft spot for animation. More years than not, at least a couple of animated features find their way onto my top 10 list. So, I’m setting out to shine a light on some films that may have passed you by. The idea here is to take a look at some underseen gems — so no Toy Story or Frozen here.
Let’s get started.
This month, the planned focus on the spooky turns instead to focus on the wacky — but never fear; to compensate, you get two for the price of one. My eye was caught by a pair of Hungarian 1976 shorts, both of which were found on MUBI’s streaming site, with premises too intriguing to turn down.
Beanfilm/Scenes with Beans
This short is a stop-motion take on alien invasion films using, you guessed it, beans. Directed by Ottó Foky, this short was the second of two short films that make up his only directing credits. The second comes a decade after his first. Given what we know about the time-intensive nature of stop-motion projects, one can only imagine how much work went into this film. Stop-motion is a style that I struggle with for some reason, but I enjoyed it here in a short burst.
The short film is a collection of even shorter vignettes showing daily life on a planet of beans through the telescope of an alien ship. Scenes depicted the bustle of the city, bean farmers, beans rolling in the hay — er carpet shag, cops and robbers, a bean homily, the hell of being put into a stew, bean soccer-y thing, a lake of mirrors, interstate driving, a work site with some shoddy safety protocols, and bean riots.
It really is a quite creative short, utilizing things like bean tins, cans, and first aid kits to immerse you in this alien world using whatever the creators could get their hands on. The film also uses simple effects which really allow you to focus on the vignettes and get the point before they move along to the next one.
It’s clear from the film that Foky is quite the sci-fi fan. The film’s opening scenes and score were very reminiscent of other long-form entries in the genre. The ship itself includes a very HAL 9000 inspired overload watching goings on bean inhabited planet.
It’s almost like weird passion project videos didn’t start with the YouTube era.
Hey, you!
In this eight-minute short, “set in the allegorical space of an abandoned room, a frustrated mind feels the distorting effects of aggression and paranoia—including visions of butterflies, the Mona Lisa, and nuclear fallout,” as described by the synopsis.
While the animation style here is a more traditional hand-drawn, that doesn’t mean it’s not unique. Director Péter Szoboszlay’s use of sketch-style characters really helps add to the trippy feel of the short. The lines making up both our main character and the room he finds himself taking refuge in are constantly morphing as they seemingly melt one into another. Items also seem to appear out of nowhere.
The color scheme, for the most part, is muted, consisting mostly of black lines on a beige canvas. In fact, it’s when the color palette starts to get more diverse that the film’s most disturbing imagery finds its way to the screen. While the film doesn’t take up much of the screen, that doesn’t mean there’s not plenty happening. There’s a lot to see with blink-and-you-miss-it changes to the setting.
As far as I can tell, this was my first foray into Hungarian cinema and, as a whole, I enjoyed both looks into how these directors used the animated medium. If Star Wars: Visions has taught you nothing, it’s that animated shorts can be a fun way for directors to explore film culture. These shorts are no exception. If you’re looking to get a little more creative with your animated content intake, you don’t always have to aim for feature-length projects.
I’m excited to continue to geek out on some great animated work you may not have had a chance to catch. I’m not sure what next month holds, but thanks for reading, and see you at next month’s celebration.
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