[SHORTS REVIEW] The Triangle (Kolmnurk) (1982)

OR

Title: The Triangle

Original Title: Kolmnurk

Country: Russia (But translated in Estonian)

Genre: Romance / Surrealism / Comedy

Company: Tallinnfilm

Directed by: Priit Parn

Year: 1982

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: N/A

Buy on:  Amazon

WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE!

The story starts off with a married couple named Viktor and Julia spending a quiet evening together.  Julia is busy making dinner for her husband Viktor and is trying to get his attention.  But unfortunately, Viktor kept on reading his newspaper, ignoring Julia's cooking and her attempts to get his attention. One day however, a man named Eduard, who is the size of a mouse, suddenly comes out from the couple's stove and starts flirting with Julia, while trying to get a meal out of her.  At first, Julia was suspicious of Eduard.  But the more Viktor kept ignoring her, the more that Julia started to take a liking to Eduard, which eventually leads to Julia feeding Eduard all of the food in the house.  This upsets Viktor so much that he decided to leave Julia.  Afterwards, Eduard decides to move in with Julia and Julia cooks him various meals.  But then Eduard starts ignoring Julia's cooking just like Viktor originally did and Julia starts wondering if she should get back together with Viktor.

Wow!  This was seriously one weird animated short!  I have seen many weird animated shorts, but none of them were quite as weird as this one!  The only other animated short that was just as weird as this short was Hen, His Wife, which also had a similar premise of a couple experiencing marital problems.  This short was a bit easier to understand than "Hen, His Wife," but it still requires some interpretation on the situation that is going on.  So, here's my take on what I think is happening in this short:

My Interpretation:

So, apparently Viktor and Julia were a happy couple when they were first married.  But over the years, Viktor started to ignore Julia and Julia is trying desperately to get her husband's attention again.  I'm assuming that the food that Julia cooks represents her sexual desires for Viktor, as the food seem to weirdly take on any shape or form of her body.  Also, there were moments where realistic photo shop images of real life people would appear on both Julia and Viktor's faces, representing their desires to look beautiful towards each other.  Then when the mouse sized man, Eduard comes between Julia and Viktor, Julia feeding Eduard the food that she made represents her having an affair with Eduard, due to wanting to feel wanted by somebody, since Viktor won't give her the attention that she wants.  So, when Viktor sees Julia feeding Eduard the food that she originally made for him, this could be viewed as Viktor finally noticing Julia having an affair with Eduard and he decides to leave her because of that.  Whether or not Julia and Viktor get back together with each other in the end is something you have to see for yourself!

I just loved the way that Priit Parn created these bizarre characters as it was interesting yet a bit disturbing seeing real life photos of people's faces suddenly appear on either Viktor, Julia or Eduard's faces as those real life photos look so out of place on these hand drawn characters.  I also liked the interesting way that Priit Parn tackled the issue of martial problems by using food as a metaphor for the couple's deteriorating marriage.

The only problem that I had with this short was that it was a bit confusing to understand at times.  Like, I wasn't really sure how the food plays a role in the couple's relationship with each other and I was wondering about where Eduard exactly came from.  I mean, this is really good stuff for a surreal short, but it can be a bit hard to swallow at times.

Overall, "The Triangle" is a truly intriguing animated short about martial problems that anyone who is in a relationship will enjoy watching (just to see how weird this short was).  Also, if you are a huge fan of foreign shorts, then this is definitely one short that you should check out!

[SHORTS REVIEW] Hen, His Wife (1990)

OR

Title: Hen, His Wife

Original Title: Yego zhena kuritsa

Country: Russia

Genre: Horror / Surrealism  / Mystery

Company: Pilot Studio

Directed by: Igor Kovalyov

Year: 1990

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: N/A

Buy on:  Amazon

WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE!

The story starts off with a man and his wife having a quiet evening together along with their half worm, half human pet, when suddenly the husband's friend comes by for a visit.  The husband's friend then brings the husband a gift of a box full of bugs that he can feed his pet with.  But, then the friend sees that the husband's wife is actually a hen and he whispers this discovery to the husband.  The husband is shocked at this discovery and when he closely inspects his wife, he ended up throwing her out of the house.  After his wife leaves the house, the husband tried to live his life the way it was before. But then he starts missing his wife and he makes a phone call to get his wife back.  When the wife comes back home, she makes a startling discovery about her husband...

Wow!  I have to say that even though I have watched lots of surreal shorts over the years, none of them quite compared to how weird this short was!  It was interesting to see an animated short that is about domestic problems and one that has so much symbolism to it. There are so many different interpretations about what is really going on in this short and what kind of message it's trying to send to the viewers.  So it would be almost impossible for me to describe to you about what I think the ulterior meaning behind this short really is. But, I'm going to give it my best shot and tell you guys what I think that this short is trying to say.

My Interpretation:

So apparently, the couple has been happy together until the husband's friend comes in and tells him that his wife is a hen.  Now, it's quite obvious to the audience that the wife is a hen, so how come the husband didn't notice this until his friend told him?  Did the wife looked way different when she and her husband first met or did the husband just ignore the obvious signs over the years?  So, when the husband finally notices that his wife is a hen, he turns her out of the house.  Maybe the husband was more upset about his wife deceiving him for all of these years and that's why he turned her out because she had betrayed his trust in her.  So, the husband tried to live life the way it was before, but he missed his wife and he starts hallucinating his situation.  It was then that he called her over the phone and begged her to come back to him.  But then the ending comes up and... well, you have to see the ending of this short for yourself!

I just loved the way that Igor Kovaliov weaved this bizarre world as all the characters look so strange, what with the blue colored husband and the humanoid hen wife.  And let's not forget the half human, half worm pet that the couple has!  I also loved the fact that there is so much symbolism and random moments going on in this short as it made the narrative so disoriented yet creative at the same time!

I was a bit thrown off by the mysterious plot of this short.  I wasn't sure what to make of the situation that happened between the couple or the various symbolism that jumped out at you with no warning.  So, there were times where I was a bit confused about what was really going on and I even had to read several different interpretations from other people who have seen this short in order to understand what was really going on in this short.

Overall, "Hen, His Wife" is a great surreal animated short that gives us a more literal description of marriage problems and anyone who loves watching Russian cartoons or just really weird shorts will definitely enjoy this short!

[TV SHOW REVIEW] The Fool and the Flying Ship (1991)

OR

Title: The Fool and the Flying Ship

Starring: Robin Williams

Genre: Comedy / Russia / Fantasy 

Company: Rabbit Ears Productions

Directed by: C.W. Rogers

Year: 1991

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: N/A

Buy on:  Amazon

Once upon a time in Russia, the Tsar had made a proclamation throughout the land that whoever brings him a flying ship will marry his daughter, the princess.  When a country bumpkin, known as the Fool, hears about this proclamation, he decides to go out and build himself a flying ship.  Once he is able to obtain a flying ship, the Fool meets up with several strange men who have unusual abilities and they head off to the Tsar's palace together.  But, when the Tsar saw that the Fool and his friends were nothing but peasants, he decides to set them three impossible tasks for them to complete before the Fool marries the princess.

Will the Fool and his friends be able to complete these tasks?

Honestly, this is my most favorite story from the Rabbit Ears series because it has everything that you would want to see happen in a fairy tale: comedy, fantasy and creative storytelling!  Robin Williams was brilliant in narrating this story as he gave each character a distinctive voice and brought so much life to this story!  I really enjoyed the creative tone of this story as the idea about having a flying ship that can take you anywhere in the world and having friends who have special abilities that can help you in a tight situation was really amusing to me!  I also loved the characters in this story, with my favorite characters being the Runner and the Fool as they were extremely hilarious and interesting to look at.  I also loved the focus on humor in this story as it made the situation and the characters much more memorable and lovable.  Henrik Drescher's artwork is what truly made this story worth watching as the illustrations are bizarre yet hilarious to look at and I always loved the artwork of all the characters, especially of the Fool (who almost looks like Pinocchio), the Runner who has antlers in his head and the Puffer who looks like He-Man when he transforms into his muscular self.

The only problem with this story is that Henrik Drescher's illustrations might be an acquired taste for many people.  Some people might like Henrik Drescher's illustrations for its creativity and its bizarre style while others might hate the artwork for being too ugly or too bizarre.

Overall, "The Fool and the Flying Ship" is a fun and creative video to watch and I am sure that many viewers will enjoy this story for its surreal humor and creative tone!