Many people think the film celebrates the book. It is true that books bring color to people's lives, and books bring comfort to people's souls when they encounter disasters, but praising books is by no means the whole of the film, and even in my opinion, this is not the main point of the film. Three elements of this film are equally important, the book, the people and the hurricane. And when a hurricane passes, the world becomes a mess. At this time, the optimism and tenacity of one's own life is actually more important. Books only inspire people to be strong no matter what difficulties they face. Belief in the meaning of life.
Let's look at hurricanes first. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina swept across the United States, destroying New Orleans, the hometown of film director William Josie. When he got back there, all that was left was a mess on the ground, the house was gone, the furniture was gone, and people's faces were full of pain. The hurricane in "Mr. Maurice Lessmo's Magical Flying Book" is actually the memory that Katrina brought to Josie. The world has completely lost its color, and people and the world have become gray.
In terms of form, Josie did draw on the plot of "The Adventures of Oz", letting the protagonist be swept up by a hurricane and come to another world with the house. The tornado that brought Dorothy to the country of Oz can be regarded as a door connecting the two worlds. It was not a disaster, nor did it bring any spiritual shadow to Dorothy. The adventure of the country is only to return to the original world. But the hurricane in "Magic Flying Book" was an outright disaster. Everyone was full of loss, and the world suddenly lost its color. Those who came here could not return to the original world, they could only rely on their own Power to stand up again, to start life anew, to build a new world.
The coexistence of people and books after the disaster is what the film wants to express most, and it is also the core of the film's creativity - the creativity here refers to creativity and meaning, that is, the innovation and the meaning of this innovation. Colors reappeared around Lesmo as the woman flying by left her book to accompany Lesmo. Later, Lesmo gave many books to those who needed them. You can see the grandmothers, the children and the cyclists, the books brought color to their lives again, and these people were before the disaster. and appear briefly on screen when disaster strikes.
Books do give people hope, especially in post-disaster situations, like when Josie sorted out piles of books from the rubble of her hometown after Hurricane Katrina and gave them to young children living in makeshift shelters. the same situation. Televisions, computers, these high-tech products of modern civilization were destroyed by the hurricane, and the children were left with only books, and books did soothe the injured hearts of the children. However, as I said in the opening paragraph, the film does not stop at praising books, a medium that carries human knowledge, civilization and even spirit, but goes a step further and praises the self-reliant human beings themselves.
Because at the same time that we see the dependence of human beings on books, we also see the dependence of books on people. Mr. Lessmore wakes up in the morning to feed some books and, like a doctor, saves the life of an old book—as bizarre as these episodes are, they are full of morality in the context: people are not just passive Accepting the care from the book, people are also relying on their own strength to perform their responsibilities and walk through their own lives. Lesmo saved the old book, and at the same time, he also experienced all kinds of thrills and joys in the process of reading the old book. This is how people and books depend on each other to survive. When Lesmo, like the girl, finally turned her experience into a book that lived on forever, the man and the book were perfectly unified, and all the previous praise for the book was finally transformed into a praise for the person.
William Josie previously worked at Pixar and participated in the design of many cartoons such as "Toy Story" and "A Bug's Life". In 2010, he co-founded Moonbot Studio with Brandon Oldenburg. Their directorial debut was The Magical Flying Book of Mr. Maurice Lessmore. According to Josie, they want to prove that they have the ability to make good films through this film. They did.
In form, the film is innovative. It is not a three-dimensional cartoon in the usual sense, but a film that combines three-dimensional, two-dimensional and stop-motion techniques. Characters such as Lessmo were created with CG technology, but the villain in the book left by the girl is a standard two-dimensional method, and there are many scenes in the film that try to use real sets. Using these different look-and-feel techniques together without creating any sense of incongruity, Josie has proven that he can handle a wide variety of films.
In terms of plot, this film is full of powerful details that classic films must have. Every time you watch it, you discover new details that weren't there before. Needless to say about the photos on the wall, have you noticed the changes in the background music when the old books appear? Did you notice the passersby on the street? When the hurricane blows, have you noticed the TV that flies through the screen in a blink of an eye? They are symbols that either have anaphora or have unique meanings. In addition to the charm of details, the film is also full of imagination. Whether it's letters blown by a hurricane, or Lemos sleeping on a huge book, it's full of animation.
Silent film is not only one of the most important keywords left by the Oscars to the world, but also the art form adopted by "Mr. Maurice Lessmo's Magical Flying Book". Animated shorts, even narrative works, silent films are the best form of expression. Because you only truly become an animation director when you have the ability to tell a story through images, shots, and music, not through dialogue.
The protagonist of the film, Mr. Lesmo, looks like the famous silent film actor Buster Keaton in both appearance and expression. Also wearing a straw hat with lace, let us believe that this similarity is not accidental. Buster Keaton is characterized by his humour through rich body language, and his almost unchanging expression has earned him the title of "The Great Stone Face". In "Fantastic Flying Books", Lesmo's deliberately stern expressions can be said to be similar to this stone face.
When today's animated shorts reincarnate in the maelstrom of obscure expression and stylized expression, the Academy Award for Animated Short Film once again reiterates its pointer: storytelling. Whether it's "Lost and Found," "Memories of the Blockhouse," or this year's "Mr. Maurice Lessmore's Fantastic Flying Book," these award-winning films tell the same story: a bittersweet love story.
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