Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Second Star to the Left" is a British animated short film from 2001, so this one had its 15th anniversary last year, but they really went the retro path here in terms of the animation, which means this one looks a lot older than it is, maybe as if it is from the 1980s even. The people who made this "behind the camera" may be fairly prolific filmmakers, but the names won't ring any bell. The names of the voice cast, however, possibly will because these are three big name actors from the UK, most of all Hugh Laurie of course. For everybody else, you can check the cast and crew list. Anyway, this is the story of three little rodent animals and their stressful and dangerous, but also important journey to see Santa Claus. The main antagonist here is a cat, obviously a hungry one looking at how thin she is. But yeah, it is a Christmas special, so nobody gets eaten. Took me a while to really get into this, but when I finally did, I enjoyed it. The landscape animation and sceneries all look very nice. The character animation I am a bit more critical on. The hamster is fine, so are the humans, the cat and guinea-pig I can get used to, the rabbit however I am really struggling with. The voice acting was quite good and same goes for the music towards the end. The story as a whole is fine too, but not as great as I had hoped. Maybe I just wanted it to be awesome as guinea-pigs are the greatest creatures ever and severely underrepresented in film and here we finally got one. But still, it was a decent watch, especially in the second half. I give it a thumbs-up and say it's worth including in your list for what to watch during the upcoming Christmas season.
