[SHORTS REVIEW] Loves Me, Loves Me Not (1992)

 

OR

Title: Loves Me, Loves Me Not

Country: United Kingdom

Genre: Surrealism / Drama

Company: Aardman Animations

Directed by: Jeff Newitt  

Year: 1992

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: N/A

Buy on:  N/A

WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE!

The short starts off with a narcissistic man who is admiring himself in the mirror, when he suddenly sees a flower in the ground.  The man picks up the flower and starts picking off the flower's petals one by one.  Each time the man picks off a flower petal, something happens to him.  Like, every time he picks a flower petal stating, "Loves Me," then good things happen to him.  But whenever he picks off a flower petal stating, "Loves Me Not," then bad things happen to him.

I've been watching a lot of Aardman Animation's older animated shorts and after watching POP, I just had to watch some more of Aardman Animation's older animated shorts and "Loves Me, Loves Me Not" just happened to be the latest short I've seen.  "Loves Me, Loves Me Not" was quite an unusual ride for me, as it's one of the few animated shorts that I've seen that actually dealt with the consequences of being too narcissistic and it does it in a very creative and strange way.  I loved the fact that every time the man in the short picks off a flower petal, something happens to him, depending on if he says, "Loves Me" or "Loves Me Not." I found it really interesting that every time the man picks off a flower petal and says, "Loves Me," good things happen to him, like a dozen lips flying towards him to kiss him or he turns into a cupid like angel.  But when he picks off a flower petal and says, "Loves Me Not," horrible things happen to him like a rain cloud suddenly comes over him or he's trapped on a island that's surrounded by sharks.  These moments greatly convey how the man feels about himself and how conscious he is about his looks.  The animation is also brilliant as the man in the short moves very fluidly and I just love how the lighting gets light whenever something good happens to the man and gets dark whenever something bad happens to the man.

My only issue with this short is that the beginning was pretty slow and it took a while for things to really pick up in this short once the man starts to pick off the petals off the flower.

Overall, "Loves Me, Loves Me Not" is a very interesting and strange short that shows the consequences of being too narcissistic in such a creative way.  I would definitely give this short a watch!

• Pop
• Face Like a Frog
• Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions

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[SHORTS REVIEW] Pop (1996)

 

OR

Title: Pop

Country: United Kingdom

Genre: Surrealism / Comedy

Company: Aardman Animations

Directed by: Sam Fell

Year: 1996

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: N/A

Buy on:  N/A

WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE!

The short starts off with a man who is waiting for a soda pop to come out of the machine, while his pet goldfish is getting irritated with being stuck inside a bowl.  But then, the soda finally comes out of the machine and the man is ready to drink the soda, until the soda starts shaking uncontrollably and it flies out of the man's hands and once it reaches the man, the results are explosive!

So recently, I started checking out some of Aardman Animation's older shorts that they made throughout the 1980s and 1990s and one of the shorts that I stumbled upon was "Pop." After I started watching this short, I was quite surprised by how bizarre this particular short was and I was even more surprised that this short came from Aardman Animations, of all animation studios!  When I think of Aardman Animations, I think mostly of "Wallace and Gromit" and "Shaun the Sheep," which are Aardman Animations' most popular animated series.  But I never knew that Aardman Animations had created several shorts in the past and now, I'm more interested in checking them all out!  "Pop" was a very interesting little, short film that was definitely one of the weirdest things that I have ever seen (which is really saying something as I've seen loads of weird shorts over the years).  What made this film so interesting to watch is that it manages to turn its simple premise about a man just wanting to drink a soda pop on its head in the weirdest way possible and I absolutely loved that about this film!  Another thing that I loved about this film were the bizarre designs of the characters.  Now sometimes, a character's design can be a make it or break it scenario for me, depending on how disturbing looking the designs are.  While the designs in this short are definitely creepy at times, I loved how weird the man and goldfish's faces were in this short and I especially loved the bizarre backgrounds in this short as they really made this short stand out from any other short that I have seen!

I don't really have that many issues with this short, but sometimes the designs of the characters can come off as being a bit creepy, especially with the man's eyes being heavily mismatched in some scenes.

Overall, "Pop" is a very intriguing and bizarre short that fans of Aardman Animations will definitely be interested in.  If you are interested in checking out more of Aardman Animations' shorts, then I would definitely give "Pop" a watch!

• Face Like a Frog

• Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions

• Quasi at the Quackadero

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Patreon // PayPal // Crowmade // Buy Me a Coffee // Ko-Fi

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