Curiosities

Oliver Jeffers: Animated movie based on the best selling book, ‘Lost and Found’

    I am genuinely in love with this animation, and I think I fell in love with it right from the menu screen.

The animation is approx. 24 minutes long, and begins by introducing the quaint little village, It’s a fishing village, that has no name that we know of, and no location that we know of either, so it could be anywhere in the world. I adore this village, it is a beautifully designed, incredibly executed village, from the colours of the buildings, to the typography on the shop windows to the adorable cars and people that reside there.

The voice used for the narrative is perfect for this animation, it reminds me of the same narrative from Charlie and the chocolate factory which takes me back to my childhood because it was one of my favourite films. It’s almost like your grandfather is reading you a bedtime story, which is really comforting and safe.

The music used within the animation is incredible, it sets the tone perfectly for each situation within the film. From being in the gorgeous village, to being out at sea, to the immense storm, to the goodbye scene. The music exaggerates the emotion within each scene and really helps the viewer become invested and participate within this animation.

Throughout the animation you find that any adult that you do see, ignore the penguin. From the fish truck that drives past and doesn’t slow down for the penguin, to the adults, which I assume are the boys parents, that are working in the shop. No adult even acknowledges the penguins presence. This makes you think, well is the penguin even there? is he an imaginary friend?

Right away the boy assumes that the penguin is lost, so goes to look for a way to help the penguin home. However as the viewer you can see that the penguin is lonely, even if the boy cannot. From the way the boy is marching ahead of the penguin int he street, and the penguin chases up to him not wanting to be left behind. To the way he imitates the boy in his bedroom, rowing the boat and sleeping in his bed. You can see how desperate the penguin is for friendship, but the boy seems to be irritated by his presence.

On the journey around the town, the penguin sees a man using a Photo Booth, and he finds a coin so decides to use it as well. This irritates the boy and he comes storming into the photo booth to retrieve the penguin from it so that he can carry on searching for a way to get the penguin home. However later on in the animation you see that the penguin packs but one thing in his suitcase, and you aren’t shown what that is. Right up until the penguin is back at the South Pole, and curiosity gets the better of the boy.

This is what he finally realises that the penguin wasn’t lost at all, that he was just lonely. This realisation makes the boy turn the boat around straight away to head back for the penguin. He goes from someone who is quite content to be on his own at the beginning of the animation, to someone who appreciates the importance of friendship.

I have to say that the storm scene broke my heart. The waves started increasing in hight as well as power, and the sea became incredibly rough. I began worrying for the safety of these two characters, I have become invested in their story of friendship that I don’t want any harm to come to them. I am not ashamed to say that I had my hands over my face at this point of the film!

When morning breaks, and the ocean clams, you encounter a ginormous octopus. At first I was again very worried for these two characters, but you see the curiosity in the octopuses eyes, as if he was simply wondering what these odd things were in the middle of the ocean. He lifts the boy and the penguin off of the up turned boat and rights it, placing them gently back inside. The octopus then places the ores and the boys suitcase carefully inside the boat before disappearing back into the deep.

I find this rather curious, thinking back to the idea of the penguin being an imaginary friend, maybe this whole adventure was a dream? and that the storm was a nightmare and the octopus has come to calm the boy, pick him up off of the floor and place him gently back in his bed for him to dream on.

Once they had arrived at the South Pole, you see a quick flash of sadness in the penguins eyes, which at first I didn’t understand. If going off of the story, and the penguin is lost, then why is he sad to be home? The boy is just about to leave when they exchange a handshake, which seemed very impersonal all things considered. The penguin chases after the boy, at which point he hands the penguin the umbrella that they had been carrying, and heads off after a brief wave goodbye.

At this point, the boy discovers the penguin’s suitcase floating in the ocean and opens it to find the photographs taken from the Photo Booth at the beginning of the film. During the Photo Booth scene, the animators seem to brush over it, so that you notice it, but don’t think about it afterwards, so bringing this element back in seemed to tie the movie together. Also, remembering the scene, the boy stormed into the Photo Booth to retrieve the penguin, he grabbed him to remove him, and a photograph was taken whilst this was happening, however from the penguins perspective, and from the perspective of the photograph that was taken, they were hugging in that Photo Booth, which added to the sadness of this scene because the boy had just left his penguin friend on the bank of the South Pole.

After finding each other again, the joy on the boys face was priceless. The change in the boy from the beginning, where he was content being on his own, to finally finding a friend that was worth having, was an incredible change to whiteness. Both the boy and penguin are paddling as fast as they can to get to each other, and when they finally do, they share a beautifully blissful hug. As though they had been apart for many years and not a few minutes.

“it all began with someone lost and someone found, but who’s to say which is which?” 

This quote summed up the film perfectly. The penguin took it upon himself to go out into the world to find a friend that he was desperate for, and the boy learnt along the way that friendship is not something to be thrown away, and that they were both looking for the same thing in the end, and they found it with each other.

I LOVE THIS ANIMATION!

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Herbert Baglione

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-29517994

Snowdon rock poetry mural dubbed ‘graffiti’

   

After reading this article I personally think that maybe they ran out of things to complain about so chose something at random.

I think that the writing on the rock is quite beautiful, I appreciate that it is in a popular walking spot, but don’t really understand how this can be anything but an asset to the area. People aren’t going to void walking there because of it, if anything more people may go there to see the text.

After all, it was written with a natural clay based material so it isn’t damaging the environment at all, like I said, I personally think that the text is quite beautiful so may go there just to see this text. It adds another element of interest to the area and may act as a break point for people as they are walking to stop and read the text.

It was a poem written by a national poet Gillian Clarke so it may well act as an attraction to the area. People are so consumed with themselves that they can’t see past the ends of their nose. Take the work of internationally famous artist Banksy. His work was initially regarded as graffiti, was washed away or painted over, and now people pay literally millions for his work. Not only that! but his work attached to the original walls! that is how incredible the art world can be.

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http://noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com/00025

The link above is a link to a website where a woman has created an entire website by using images of her writing on top of her fridge and on her cooker. It is a very entertaining website, her language is very relaxed which makes it easy to read and very funny.

She is advertising 2 of her own books that have been published and she is trying to increase the publicity of the books, she does this by commenting that because the books are bright pink and bright yellow, that you can only wear those colours when reading them, the images that go along with these comments are very funny.

She drifts off topic a couple of times which adds to the character of the website and makes you want to read on.

         

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