This Way Up (2008)

Very Cool!!!

Such a frustrating disappointment

Good movie but grossly overrated

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I sort of found this by mistake while browsing youtube. I loved it, honestly it was a laugh-riot, reminded me of some of Tim Burton's works, with flawless animation, catchy soundtrack and a creative and lovable pair of characters, despite the fact that they work in a rather dreary business.The plot follows two morticians as they struggle to get one of their "clients" to his final resting place, and they have to overcome a variety of obstacles. It's very short but still really effective and memorable. It deserves a 10/10, I loved it and I highly recommend it! Not all animation has to be that happy cheery Disney crud to be good, sometimes it's much better to be original.

This short was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short. There will be spoilers ahead:This is a fairly active short which packs quite a lot, so it bears repeated viewing. From the trip in the hearse from the funeral home, where the natures of the two main characters are set through some quick gags, this short starts out strong and builds from there.Something very minor starts a chain reaction, leading to the first gut punch the firm of A.T. Shank and Son will take this disturbing day. It will not be the last in a day which would make a sane man change professions.The most fastidious and determined undertaker in the world and his much less intense son go on a journey which would give Odysseus the screaming meemies! They meet with thickets, hunters, birds, boulders and slopes. They wind up in a Hell which resembles New Orleans at Mardi Gras as filmed by Roger Corman. Shaken but yet unbowed, the two seriously determined undertakers manage to leave the afterlife with their seriously damaged coffin, finally depositing it in the grave. The ending scene is wonderful and shows changes to both father and son. The song over the credits is delightfully bizarre.This is most definitely worth finding and watching, so long as you don't find the subject matter to disturbing for your taste. Most highly recommended.

This film was nominated the Oscar for Best Short Animated Film, and I'm glad I got to see what was essentially the British entrant. A.T Shank & Son are the coffin carriers who are having a bad day as they try to take a coffin to its place of burial. A boulder knocked off a cliff crushes the hearse, and they make their way across country, through prickly hedges, to get the coffin (their only company) to the right place. They are crushed and go down into what is essentially Hell, and into a flowing river with hundreds of coffins, but they manage to swim out and drop the (wrecked) coffin in its hole. An amusing caper film with some interesting CGI animation, the subject matter is a little questionable as to whether you can find it all funny, but being a British film, you can recognise the dark humour. Good!

Like last year, I went to a special showing of the Oscar-nominated animated short films. However, unlike last year, in addition to the nominees, several "commended films" were also shown. In this review I'll make my predictions, though if it's anything like last year's choices, I'll probably once again pick the wrong shorts as my favorite for the award.This film is a computer generated short from the United Kingdom. It's about two morticians who are out to retrieve a body for burial. However, again and again, events conspire against them and nothing seems to go right. All of the mistakes make this a highly creative and funny film but I also assume some people might find it all in bad taste--though that's exactly why I liked the film. Seeing them lose the corpse and it getting stuck in a tree, taking a side trip to the after life and all the crazy Looney Toon-like stunts made me laugh repeatedly--something none of the other shorts did even once.Overall, I think the award for Best Animated Short is probably between this film and PRESTO--though LE MAISON EN PETITS CUBES seems to have a shot at the prize as well. THIS WAY UP is very daring with its dark content, exceptionally different CGI look and sense of humor. If the Academy is willing to pick such a dark toned film, it can easily win. PRESTO is a very good CGI film, with the best artwork of the five films and a story that seems inspired by Tex Avery. It's not surprising that it looks so good, as it's a Pixar short. However, THIS WAY UP seemed more creative and different--whereas PRESTO seemed like a 1950s cartoon brought to life using CGI.Considering my track record last year, I assume THIS WAY UP won't win. It's a shame, as I really liked it and would love to see more from the sick folks who made it!UPDATE: LA MAISON EN PETITS CUBES was the winner this year. Not surprisingly, I got this one wrong but at least saw the film as a strong contender.