La bûche de Noël

Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar made one of the most charming and unique full-length animated films and rightly were nominated for an Oscar for their "Ernest and Celestine". The pair also recently made a very strange animated short--one that initially looks pretty insignificant but which actually made me laugh repeatedly.

"The Christmas Log" is a strange animated film because they used plastic toys as the main characters. Small soldiers, farm animals and a cowboy and Indian...and Santa are the stars of this oddity. While seeing the plastic toys moving about initially looks like a teen's YouTube project, the film actually turns out to be much more. The cheap plastic figures do bend and move in a variety of ways--and I assume they did this with clay. What also is disarming is that although the plot is very silly and the sort of thing small children will love, I found myself laughing many times as well.

The strange story is about three roommates-- a cowboy and Indian and a horse. Surprisingly, the horse is by far the smartest and most mature of them and he is constantly being annoyed by his dopey roommates. Eventually, the pair cause so many problems that Horse calls Santa and tells him not to bring any presents this year. In desperation, Cowboy and Indian go off on an adventure to redeem themselves...even if it means stealing and creating havoc in the process!

Turn off your brain and just enjoy this one...and you will.