The animation style of stop motion, slightly awkward character designs and color-coded characters gives the film an overall fanciful look. The direction very much focus on the small details and seemingly irrelevant details, i.e. birds building nest. Tiny odd details keep cropping up as either a story point or as a visual motif, i.e. beer cans. This fancifulness is at odds with the story's emotional core.
The story is one of loss and gain. The loss of one's parents but the gain of new family. The loss of innocence but gaining wisdom. Or gaining a friend (from an enemy) only to lose said friend. The story is deceptively simply but a ton of humanity is packed in the little moments. On paper this story is quite dour with nary a moment of joy. What joy there is laced with sadness. You would think this would work against the animation.
But it turns out that the combination of the two discordant elements utterly work together. This feels very much how one views the world as child. And the film is all the more emotional for it. This film realizes its central character's viewpoint utterly.
The story is one of loss and gain. The loss of one's parents but the gain of new family. The loss of innocence but gaining wisdom. Or gaining a friend (from an enemy) only to lose said friend. The story is deceptively simply but a ton of humanity is packed in the little moments. On paper this story is quite dour with nary a moment of joy. What joy there is laced with sadness. You would think this would work against the animation.
But it turns out that the combination of the two discordant elements utterly work together. This feels very much how one views the world as child. And the film is all the more emotional for it. This film realizes its central character's viewpoint utterly.