punishmentpark A fun children's animated movie, and certainly not too long. The story seemed familiar in some way, but of the Gruffalo I never heard before. They didn't mean Mark Ruffalo meeting the Grinch, right?The animation style is charming, the characters work pretty good and the story unfolds cleverly, with distinct attention to many details. The ending had escaped me for a while, but I was able to look it up.A great introduction to the many monsters of cinema for children, should they be interested. One nephew couldn't get enough of this. Me neither, really.8 out of 10.

Horst in Translation ([email protected]) Rarely has it been displayed more entertaining and witty than in this 27-minute short film. It was released during the Christmas holidays 2009. A bit off an odd choice as there's no Christmas spirit or snowy landscapes in this one, instead a beautifully animated green forest. Mother Squirrel tells her kids a story and there's certainly something mysterious about it, just like about the whole film. Bonham Carter does a nice job voicing the narrator and it makes me want to see her in more animation. Her intonation gives the film a very unique tone, the whole thing just like the creature in the center of it are shrouded in mystery.We see a little mouse pretending to be friends with that creature, a Gruffalo, whose favorite meal is fox, owl or snake depending on which enemy the mouse has to keep from making it their lunch. But what happens when the Gruffalo actually appears? All in all it's an entertaining half-hour feature and I'm okay with it being nominated for an Oscar. I'm not sure if it's better than the winner "The Lost Thing", but it definitely made a good watch. It's a bit of very a modern fable on the David-Golitah metaphor and the rhymes included and recited by Bonham Carter occasionally reminded me of the old Dr. Seuss animation.

Jackson Booth-Millard This short film based on the popular children's book was something I was really annoyed to miss when it was broadcast at Christmas, but when it was shown again I wasn't going to miss it again. Basically two Little Squirrels (Sam Lewis and Phoebe Givron-Taylor) are being told the story of a mouse's walk through the woods by Mother Squirrel (Helena Bonham Carter). A Mouse (James Corden) goes for a walk in the forest in order to get to the tree of acorns, and along the way he encounters predators who will want to eat him. He encounters a Fox (Tom Wilkinson), an Owl (John Hurt) and a Snake (Rob Brydon) who all invite him for a meal, the Mouse declines all of them as he knows they want to eat him. After declining he says to each enemy that he is meeting something called the Gruffalo (Robbie Coltrane), which he describes the hideous anatomy of, and he says its favourite food is based on his predator, to which they run away. The Mouse laughs to himself, knowing that there is no such thing as a Gruffalo, however he is shocked to see that the creature he has been inventing actually exists, and he wants to eat him. However the Mouse stops him, claiming that he is the scariest animal in the forest, and the Gruffalo thinking this is a joke agrees to follow him so he can prove it. The Mouse approaches each predator again, and they run away in terror seeing the big monster behind him, the Gruffalo assumes wrongly that they are running from the Mouse. After all this and the Gruffalo believes that he is indeed the scariest animal in the forest, the Mouse threatens to eat him, to which the large creature runs away, and the Mouse walks away nibbling an acorn he finds. The computer animation is really good for this simple and fun story, the younger audience will definitely have fun with the lovable Mouse, the hideous but likable Gruffalo, and the other characters as well, and the older audience will like the well known voices bringing them to life, is an easy to enjoy family fantasy. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Short Animated Film, and it was nominated the BAFTA for Best Short Animation. Very good!

elshikh4 A tale about how cunning compensates the lack of power, shown in a magically colorful, greatly made 3D animation. The action is intense, the fun is smart (The daydreams' shots for big instance), the characters are all distinguished and so cute; I have such an admiration for the owl's design. However, while everything seems all right, all bright, there were some things here and there that bugged me.The narration, rather the whole squirrel storyline ? It was a factor of thrill, yes. But in general I felt that it elongated the movie more than benefited it. Its start is strange, since obviously these kids need to eat, not to listen to a story. And when in its end they all have the food, without cunning or anything, then it's kind of bland and unnecessary.The matter of the lead wanting to go to the nuts' big tree was left with no end. I felt that he, after the whole scheme, already reached it; as if it's an equal to his success. Or he could have eventually used the Gruffalo to do such a thing (while his running afraid lastly). By the way, I hated how the Gruffalo, despite all what he has seen of clues, wanted to eat the lead near the end ?? I see that it was just a lousy attempt to make a thrilling moment, which came out as forced and unbelievable.While the characters are a memorable experience, the snake's design isn't. It was the weakest of them all, looking more like a character in a tacky puppet show! The pace is mostly fine, atmospheric and meditative, however I thought that the movie could have been shorter, especially the intro / opening credits which in fact fits a feature film. And finally, violet or not, I couldn't stand the matter of the wart on the Gruffalo's nose.. GROSS !This is luscious and meaningful. But on the scale of 10 it stopped at 7. Hmmm, let's make it 8 due to its image then.