Ward 13 (2003)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Thanks for the memories!

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

There hasn't been a short animation as heartfelt or mesmerizing as this. Ward 13 takes you to the pinnacle of breathtaking action packed adventure, complete with tremendous craftsmanship and superb Direction. Not a great fan of stop motion animation? That's OK, here is your cure. After seeing Ward 13 for the first time, my immediate response was that it is easily the best animated short film I have ever seen. There are many animated shorts which come close but there is nothing compared to how much energy and entertainment Ward 13 has given to many a audience. No wonder there ware 2 sellout crowds at Fantasia film festival in 2003 where all that most of the unfortunates could do was stand outside and hear a roaring audience from within the cinema.

A man falls onto a road, and next thing we know he's in the hospital with bandages over his head... only the hospital is more like a mixture of hell and Lovecraftian horror imagery.This short is featured on the Animation Show 2005, and it is the strongest animation of them all. It is an absolutely stunning display of almost seamless stop-motion animation that is at times hilarious and disturbing. What is of particular interest to the craft of the feature is the way the expressions of the patient are done only with slight changes to his eyes, while expressions of other things range from full-faced to slightly hidden. The animator, Peter Cornwall, seems to have real control over his animation and storytelling.This film speaks towards the fear of being hospitalized... there you are, in a weakened state, with strangers and strange things around, with fear of surgery, drugs, and blood, and sometimes you don't know if you'll ever get to leave. It illustrates this issue with a man who runs, hides, fights, and blows his way through obstacle after obstacle to check himself out, and all the situations and things he comes across... a wheelchair chase, a Lovecraftian monster, sadistic surgeons, pills of head-explody... everything that says fun! A very entertaining time that will leave your mouth agape at the end, struggling to decide what exactly to feel about it... see it if you can.--PolarisDiB

This really geeky animated short simply manages to crawl in a most unpleasant way under your skin. After an accident, a rather sinister looking patient wakes up in a rather sinister looking hospital with a load of weird and creepy nurses/doctors. So, once he discovers the cable to the big red "I need you nurse" button has been cut, our friend and patient starts wandering the long and confusing corridors of the hospital. On his way to freedom he faces not only the terrible doctors, but also the monstrosities resulting from some seemingly inhumane experiments. And let me tell you, the road to freedom has never seemed so long.All the characters look really spooky and the "things" our patient encounters - both objects as well as...beings - were humor-fully thought of and brilliantly implemented. It's a "parodical" and yet scary short, which keeps clinging onto you like some slimy liquid you wish not to have stepped in. Totally awesome!

The qualities of this little animated gem obviously remind me of Aardvark Studio's work : the same efficient use of plasticine for round-shaped and exquisitely expressive characters, the sense of humour and irony within a specific genre, and the constant cinematographic references. Here, it is the horror film that is spoofed, with an inclination toward the "hospital horror" sub-genre. But it is never done to the detriment of the rhythm or of a strong story line : the humour within the fear is always sharp and witty, and the director even winks at Nick Park's specific work with a chase in the hospital hallways that is clearly an hommage to the chase between Gromit and the penguin in The Wrong Trousers. With such impressive skills, I don't really worry about Peter Cornwell's future : it looks bright.