graham.ursula - 2013-05-22 09:19:55

Young Animator Training Project/Anime Mirai short reviews: Part 7/12Dudu the Floatie tells the tale of a little girl who wants to go to the beach with her dad but the dad keeps putting it off because of work and partly because he’s terrified of water. The directing in this one is remarkably good in how it pieces larger story beats in silly little asides. Things like the shots of the dad playing golf with his bosses, where they keep missing the golf ball entirely, signifying how utterly tedious his work obligations are. The story does get a bit silly when it reaches the fantasy bit. The kid buys the dad one of those floating killer whale things kids bring to swimming pools all the time, except instead of a fucking awesome killer whale, it’s some dumb manatee floatee instead. The floatie comes to life and they go off to magical land and do shit together which allows the young animators do animate something more exciting than a little kid with an oversized head sulk. I get why this part is in the story. It’s part of the child’s imagination and how they come to deal with their problems through elaborate fantasies that make no sense to parents. But the story works fine without that extended sequence. I was even welling up a little inside at the end where the dad and the daughter come together, because they manage it in a way that’s not aggressively maudlin and works well with the light-hearted tone of the rest of the piece.Verdict: Watch