The only of the bad children's shorts that I had more execution problems with than ideological problems. The idea, that it's important to teach children about language and what words mean, even when doing so is uncomfortable and fraught with pitfalls, is something that isn't brought up enough in works intended for children.
Unfortunately the film mishandles the premise with melodramatic close-ups, the main character's performance, filled with aching, glassy-eyed remembrance of some past traumatic event, and the strangely fantastical and aura-like lighting that rob the idea of its weight, rather than infusing it. It's a textbook case of a director not trusting the material to speak for itself, so she feels the need to hit the audience hard over the head with it. Makes me appreciate even the relative subtlety and poignance Pixar, despite their many flaws, are capable of bestowing children's films.
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