$9.99

The parade of quality Aussie films continues with this stop-motion animated film, which is a co-production with Israel.
It is interesting how in one year we get two stop-motion animated films coming out of Australia. As you know my favourite film of all time is 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' so this form of animation is my favourite. I know there is probably similar effort put into other forms of animation but for me being able to do Stop-motion animation just looks like it would take a lot more patients. Thats why I have a great deal of respect and admiration for those who do it. I don't know what it is but I just liked the whole look ofit too and how they can bring these models to life. For those who don't know this is an ensemble film about the lives of various people living in an apartment building based on the short stories by Etgar Keret. Director Tatia Rosenthal has been able to weave these interesting stories about life very well. In some ways they are very philosophical looks at how people live their lives, look for meaning and deal with love. The thing I most liked was the quality of the models. They had a very interesting look where they looked like 3D paintings. It looked quite beautiful. My favourite story involved a young boy saving up to buy a toy. It was really cute and touching. Be prepared though as the ending is quite weird and shows why they needed to make the film animated.
Tatia has assembled quite an impressive voice cast of famous Aussies for the film. They all do an excellent job and give naturalistic performances. If I had to single one out it would be Samuel Johnson. I really liked his performance.
It is disappointing that animation in films as opposed to TV has mainly focused on making films that are aimed at children. This film proves that excellent animated films can be made for adults.