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Simply Perfect

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

When it comes to the Oscar nominees for Best Animated Short, you can usually divide the selections into two broad categories. There's the deep emotional tales that tell a complete story – say, 'Harvie Krumpet (2004)' and 'My Love (2006)' – and then there's the one-joke comedic shorts, which are typically enjoyable but inconsequential five-minute distractions. As such, I'm usually disappointed when the latter category earns themselves nominations, as I can't escape the feeling that there's a profound, meaningful alternative out there that I'll now never hear about. 'Maestro (2005),' directed by Géza M. Tóth, inspired this type of mild, illogical resentment; it's good, but it's nothing special, a single funny joke that takes a full five minutes to even approach its punchline. This is not necessarily to say anything negative about the short, merely that its ambitions were quaint from the very beginning. Not every animated film should say something profound about the state of human existence, and perhaps I should simply enjoy this little gag for what it is.In a dark dressing-room, as a chicken-like opera singer prepares for his next performance, a nifty mechanical device industriously grooms him for the big moment. As the machine goes about its duties – pouring a martini, applying make-up, dusting off clothing – the camera, in one clever long-take, continually carves a 360-degree path around the Maestro, shifting in one-second increments like the second hand of a ticking clock. The computer animation is smooth and crisp, doing a fine job of readjusting to the rapidly-changing lighting conditions as the camera consistently circles. The suspense of the big moment is prolonged, to such an extent that the five minutes preceding the all-important punchline seem stagnant and expendable once we know what is about to happen. I don't think that this short will hold up on repeat viewings, and, indeed, I don't feel any inclination to watch it again (which is where it differs even from Pixar shorts like 'Geri's Game (1997),' which I could watch all day). 'Maestro' is worth a look, but it's not one for posterity.

This is one of the short films nominated in 2006 for an Academy Award, it is part of a collection on DVD. It is done is modern computerized animation and is very well made. Watch it if you ever have the chance.The tile of the DVD is "A Collection of 2006 Academy Award Nominated Short Films."SPOILERS - DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE FILM SHORT YET.We see what appears to be a bird who is an opera singer, he is in his dressing room, warming up his vocal cords, while his robotic assistant helps dress him, tend to his makeup, and prepare him for the upcoming performance. It has all the trappings of a real opera singer getting ready. Only at the end do we realize that he is actually inside a clock, and the performance is the hourly chime "coo-coo" in the clock.

I attended a screening of the Oscar-nominated shorts yesterday and if I had a vote in the Academy it would go to "Maestro". At the beginning I wasn't quite sure of what kind of world it took place in. On the surface it looked like a backstage peek at an impennate opera singer preparing for a show. But why was a mechanical arm doing all of the grooming, drink mixing, and other tasks? The interesting thing I noticed about "Maestro" was that as the camera circled around, the perspective changed at one second intervals. This technique recalls the motion of a second hand and hints strongly at the film's wonderful punch line.

This is funny, well-crafted, computer-animated short film that'll give you a good laugh if you watch it. You can find it for free online (and legally) by searching for it at the "Portable Film Festival".The fact I'm giving the film a 6 does not at all mean that I disliked it - as another user said, the film moves in a very deliberate way to a funny conclusion that you the viewer will probably not expect. It's definitely worth a look.The thing is, that's all there is to it. The film sets its target low and does a great job of achieving it, but it's still a low target. I'm not sure that it has enough in it to deserve an Oscar nomination (especially when exemplary artistic masterpieces such as Aleksandr Petrov's "My Love" were left out of the list). It's a fine film that's worth watching, but it's still only based around a rather short, simple joke and doesn't aim for anything higher.