Stop motion animation has gleefully seen a resurgence in recent years with films the likes of Kubo and the Two Strings and Isle of Dogs. Rustic in execution, time-consuming and not very budget friendly, these projects aren’t always popular to the fiscal eyes of major studios, many of whom would rather take the CGI route when it comes to big releases what with their clean lines and nearly flawless style. But visual perfection can often dress up a lackluster screenplay by putting on a candy-coated facade of dazzling images to fool you into thinking the film is more than the sum of its parts. Stop motion, even the most fleshed out, can have a jittery yet tangible feeling. But it is that tangibility, that solid object set to film, which leaves the viewer with a plausible feeling of existence in what they are witnessing where a CGI rendering might stick out as kid’s stuff.
The Quintet of the Sunset takes the simple concept of pet ownership and does what, say, The Secret Life of Pets would have monopolized into cheap jokes and slick visuals, dolloped with a smattering of ill-fitting celebrity voices because that is what the people want (according to studio research). This delightfully bittersweet short plays with the idea of putting a personality to our pets, in this case, cats, to craft a heartfelt diary of a pet owner through the eyes of her most recently beloved companions.
Anthropomorphizing The Ones We Love
The film starts off with a grandfather clock setting the scene. Each scene actually, working as a character onto itself to remind the audience of time’s constant control of this plane of existence. We first meet Leon, a mouse assassin homaging the Luc Besson classic action flick Leon: The Professional. The segments that follow are characterizations of each cat Gina, the owner, had throughout her life. I would be remiss to reveal the other felines featured in this brilliant short film without giving away the solid comedic effect given to each cat.
Narrated in Japanese, subtitled to English, the world never goes beyond the confines of Gina’s home which feels almost like being in a dollhouse. The character design of each cat, and Gina respectively, emit a personality all there own. What comes across as the most charming comes from the emotive, yet simple construction with the woolen tufts of fur and stylish simplicity breathing life into the characters in an almost whimsically childlike execution of story and emotion. The world feels as lived in and reminiscent of a life led by Gina and her friends adding a touch of gravitas without cloying for broad audience approval.
All The Feels
This film is an emotion machine. If you are spared a tear roll by the end of this venture, I’d be amazed. The ride is full of sweetness and most of all truth about life, death, and the friends brought along on the journey.
The Quintet of the Sunset acts as a reminder that animation can go beyond kids stuff. If anything looking at the deeper quandaries of existence and the effect others play in our life’s path occasionally needs to be told in simpler ways, explaining these cosmic quandaries with a spoon full of sugar in order to make the harder to confront emotions a bit easier to swallow in the end.
This Will All Make Sense
Reviewing a short film is tough. Not spoiling a near eight-minute slice of adorably dressed existentialism is even harder. That said, I’ll leave you with this – The Quintet of the Sunset is a must watch for anyone, pet owner or otherwise. Sometimes a good laugh, a good cry or a great story is all we really need.
Short film doesn’t always find the audience it deserves. If you have a title the Film Inquiry community might find amazing let us know in the comments section.
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