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This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

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

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The 2010 winner of Best Animated Short Film looks at a boy who befriends a thing that looks out of place. Everyone around him is too wrapped up in their personal affairs to even notice the thing. "The Lost Thing" shows a stark contrast between the boy's world and the place where the thing fits in. Basically, the boy's world is a reflection of our own: a concrete environment where people are too distracted by the latest whatever to notice what's right in front of them. I guess that as we age, we lose the ability to see the fun in everything. As the boy puts it "I haven't seen any more of those things. Or maybe I just haven't noticed." Really good cartoon.

This film is the 2010 effort from Asian-Australian writer-director Shaun Tan that won him the Oscar in the animated short category over such prestigious competition like Pixar or the Centre National de la Cinématographie. I wouldn't want to be the judge if it's the best of the year, but it's surely a cute piece of animation with an interesting story and it fits story-wise very well in with Toy Story 3 winning the full-length animation prize that year.We meet a boy who finds a giant red creature with tentacles, plays with it for a while just as if it's a dog. They have a fun time at the beach building sandcastles, but as the moment of farewell moves closer and everybody would go his way again, the boy realizes that his new companion is lost and has nowhere to go. So he first takes it home, then, after the parents complain, puts it in the shed while trying to find out where it came from, on his own and with the help of a friend. But no success. Finally, he takes it to a lost property office hoping somebody came asking for it. But is this how it ends? It's a nice little tale on misfits that offers an uplifting ending and an interesting moral (maybe that was what lifted this one above the other nominated films to Oscar glory) that finds a good balance and is not too much in the viewer's face. It's not a real standout in regard to anything, animation, story or voicework, but the combination of all the aspects resulted in a thoughtful overall result. Recommended and I'm curious about Tan's work in the future. I'd really like to see a feature film from him, maybe even centering around The Lost Thing.

The Lost Thing is a 15 minute animated short film based on the highly acclaimed picture book by multi award winning author and illustrator, Shaun Tan, that says to have been influenced by Tim Burton, Francis Bacon and Rene Magritte. I will not dare to write a piece about Tan's life and work, but, by these influences, you can have an idea of how this movie will be shown: with subliminal meanings and metaphors. As this short film was adapted from the children's book of same name, you shall watch it through the eyes of a child, that is now knowing the world it lives. I believe the metaphor created successfully by Shaun means to a kid that the world it was born at is a place of bitter people that lost their brightness; they do not care about life and happiness anymore; but you must not care about it. You are special the way you are, and you will find your place in the world some day; not among the others people, but among equal friends who will comprehend your feelings and make you happy. And by its signification, watching this 15 minutes film worth it.

The lost thing rises as a breath of fresh air against an ever rising tide of wise cracking or sickly cute fur balls and violent comic animation fueled by the American market. At around 15 minutes in length "The lost thing" had a production time line sprawled over nearly ten years with the bulk of work done over three years. The required creative control in adapting and complementing a very popular book have clearly been kept in check buy the directorial hand of the original illustrator and author Shaun Tan and very small production team principally Leo Baker, the main animator and computer graphics artist Tom Bryant.It is a simple story which reflects on human natures diminishing observation and appreciation of a world out side the day to day pathway we are all forced to travel by both greater authority and selfish ambition. Childlike observations laced with surrealistic circumstance create the distinctly dream like world of "The Lost Thing" "The lost thing" is short but so visually rich with Shaun Tans remarkable eye for detail it feels complete and invites repeated viewing. If your a little over street wise dudes with stand up comic sarcasm, over blown CGI action coupled with misfiring plots take a medicinal shot of "The Lost Thing". You can not go wrong.