This short was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short. There will be spoilers ahead:
In addition to discussing this short, I'd like to make the following observation-animation is not a genre, as mystery, western or science fiction would be, but rather it is a method of making films, a technique, a craft. It's a method for the presentation of a story and can be used to relate a mystery, a western, a science fictional story effectively.
This short serves as an excellent use of animation (specifically stop-motion) to relate an adaptation of Daniel Defoe's "Journal of the Plague Years". It creates the atmosphere of its setting with remarkable economy and effectiveness.
Told by a narrator, voiced by Kenneth Branagh, whose performance is magnificent, the story is told by a series of diary passages written by a periwig-maker who finds himself closeted in his shop during a plague. The narrator speculates on the causes and remedies of the plague as tragedy unfolds around, almost mundanely, on a daily basis. The occasional glimpses of rats scurrying about remind the viewer what the narrator doesn't realize, namely, that the plague is caused by infected fleas borne by the rats.
The narrator gradually becomes aware of a little girl who, of course, becomes ill and subsequently succumbs to the plague. Eventually consumed by a feeling of guilt, the periwig-maker does something startling by way of atonement for his separation from humanity, becomes ill himself and it is clear that he too will die of plague.
This is a bleak and dark work and is expertly crafted. It can be found online and is well worth seeking out. Most highly recommended.
In addition to discussing this short, I'd like to make the following observation-animation is not a genre, as mystery, western or science fiction would be, but rather it is a method of making films, a technique, a craft. It's a method for the presentation of a story and can be used to relate a mystery, a western, a science fictional story effectively.
This short serves as an excellent use of animation (specifically stop-motion) to relate an adaptation of Daniel Defoe's "Journal of the Plague Years". It creates the atmosphere of its setting with remarkable economy and effectiveness.
Told by a narrator, voiced by Kenneth Branagh, whose performance is magnificent, the story is told by a series of diary passages written by a periwig-maker who finds himself closeted in his shop during a plague. The narrator speculates on the causes and remedies of the plague as tragedy unfolds around, almost mundanely, on a daily basis. The occasional glimpses of rats scurrying about remind the viewer what the narrator doesn't realize, namely, that the plague is caused by infected fleas borne by the rats.
The narrator gradually becomes aware of a little girl who, of course, becomes ill and subsequently succumbs to the plague. Eventually consumed by a feeling of guilt, the periwig-maker does something startling by way of atonement for his separation from humanity, becomes ill himself and it is clear that he too will die of plague.
This is a bleak and dark work and is expertly crafted. It can be found online and is well worth seeking out. Most highly recommended.