Wow! What a visual feast! You'll be floored by the artwork that walks the walls.

I'm not reviewing the story here. A glimpse at the trailer drew me in and inspired an alternative strategy for viewing. Sadly, I don't speak either Spanish or German, and with such rich, creative, eye-popping (literally) visuals, I knew I didn't want to take my eyes off the animation. For that reason, I ignored the subtitles. I also turned off the audio and blasted Evanescence (the "Fallen" album).

My jaw remained dropped in joy. I was like a kid in Disneyland - so much magic to marvel at. These filmmakers filled my eyes with wonder and dream. The film is a front row seat to the imagination of inspired artists.

The animation is gritty, down and dirty. At times fish wires glisten from head to wall making the dream all the more surreal. Hands and feet cross the room to complete paper-mache-like characters. They are rough and edgy, but there is a life to them – sometimes you'll swear a full-blooded person is under all that tape and paint.

The visual story, while eerie and edgy, isn't as dark or depressing as colored by the press note summary. The film is like those dreams that take you into unknown places: "wonder" with a touch of fear, enough to stir your blood, but not curdle it.

While the animators are impressively creative and fill that one-location house with varying styles of stop-motion animation, there are a handful of times when methods get repetitive. That said, I'm going to give the filmmakers the benefit of the doubt and assume the dialogue would have carried the film at those few moments. Overall, this is a very very cool short feature (long short?) that stirred my blood and imagination!

-- Books by Author/Illustrator Ross Anthony --