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Overrated

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

"In a Heartbeat" is a very unusual film. Two students from the Ringling College of Arts and Design, Esteban Bravo and Beth David, made this animated short as their final graduation project. That in and of itself is not unusual. However, when the short was released on YouTube, it received 20,000,000 hits in the first five days!! To this date, over 34,000,000 have watched the film. So, considering how popular the film was, as well as the quality of the project, it's odd that it was not nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the Oscar for Best Animated Short. In fact, it wasn't even included as one of the commended films when the animated shorts were shown in the weeks preceding the Oscars. I have no idea why it wasn't chosen...especially in light of how incredibly mediocre the actual nominees were.The story itself is very simple and is told without words. A gay young man (I am guessing about Middle School age) is smitten with a classmate. To illustrate this, Bravo and David used a heart...a literal heart...to show the boy's intense feelings. And, like most intense feelings from teens, he's unable to control the heart...and it literally bursts from the boy's chest and begins chasing after the other boy. What's next? See the film.The bottom line is that this film has spoken to a lot of people and it's very well made...so well made that I am anxious to see more from these bright young graduates.

This is unarguably a finely-tuned, short animation that tells a touching, universal story without words. The creators of this short have done noble work, as artists, as story tellers, as social commentators and as humanists. The awards should be forthcoming, and are well deserved.

This short captured so well what it is like to be in the closet and have a crush on someone. You can't tell anyone not even your closest friends and you are desperate to keep your feelings hidden for fear they would reveal you were gay. This film takes the common cliché of exploring a high- school crush and put a new spin on it. For me this film struck a chord and the way that it has gone viral fills me with hope that we are moving in a positive direction as a society. And for the review criticizing the suggestion about a lot of kids can be homophobic at times, I'm sorry to say but from my experience as a young teenager, I was teased before I even came out and people would always had a negative view of homosexuality at least where I lived. It was only in the late teens and people matured that people become more accepting. I think it definitely has something to do with teenage insecurity. Here's to hoping this short gets the recognition it deserves.

This is a short film, just over 4 minutes. I came across it sort of randomly on Youtube. If it was shot on digital media can I really call it a "film"?The big flaw in this short is the message that a young person can observe someone and fall in love with that person from a distance. Sadly many young people grow up with this idea and this short only reinforces the lie. In truth any attraction is just a fleeting thing, once you get to know another person really then you might eventually fall in love with them.In this short a shy boy observes a classmate, doesn't speak to him, but his heart leaps out and pursues a "getting to know you." That the subject focuses on an attraction between two boys is moot, it could be two girls or a boy and a girl. Still it gives the wrong message about how attraction and love really work.Watch it and decide for yourself, it is barely 4 minutes.