In the late 90s, brothers Gabriel and Rodolfo Riva Palacio started a small series of animated shorts that they distributed via internet. This shorts were humorous sketch comedies about living eggs and their misfortunes that due to their successful mix of cartoon-like animation and witty jokes became a very popular download in Spanish-speaking countries. Years after that unexpected success, the Riva Palacio brothers got enough funding to create a feature length movie about their animated eggs that could keep the spirit of their short animations. "Una Película De Huevos" (literally, "A Film About Eggs") was the result of that effort.
The film tells the story of Toto (Bruno Bichir), a "newborn" egg whose dream of becoming a chicken is shattered when he is selected by the farmer to be sent to a mall to be sold. Decided to not end his days as breakfast, he joins a group of rebel eggs in their escape plan but he is abandoned after the plan is screwed up. Now, with the help of another abandoned egg named Willy (Carlos Espejel) and a lunatic bacon stripe, he is on a quest to escape from the city and find a farm where he'll be able to finally become a chicken.
Sure, at first sight one wonders how a movie about talking eggs can work, but this one not only works, it's actually very good at it. Giving a new face to the classic hero's journey to find himself, the Riva Palacio brothers fill the movie with their witty brand of comedy although toned down so it could be enjoyed by kids of any age. The use of slapstick, irony, parody and all the elements that made their short animations famous are present in the film so it won't disappoint their followers.
The animation work is probably among the best seen in a Mexican film (animated productions are not common in the country), and the mix of traditional animation and computer-generated one is very fluid and barely noticeable. The story unfolds at a nice pace and while the story is obviously predictable, its great dose of humor and the overall well-development of the script make up for that flaw. It probably is not the best Mexican film ever made, but it is a big step forward for the young industry of animation in Mexico.
The voice work is remarkable and basically it gives the soul to the film and is the element that makes it so charming. Bruno Bichir and Carlos Espejel are great as the lead characters, with the serious attitude of the former making a good contrast with the comedic nature of the latter. As in the original shorts, the Riva Palacio brothers give their voices too and Rodolfo appears as the charming villain Coco and Gabriel as the Confi, the stoned hippie egg. Angélica Vale appears as Bibi, the romantic interest of our heroes, although her performance is nothing amazing.
The film is overall very good, but it has some details that diminishes its quality. The fact that the characters were originated in short films is apparent when some scenes seem too silly or with the only purpose of increasing the runtime to a feature length. However, its only true serious trouble lays in what is probably also its greatest strength: the kind of humor it uses the most (verbal) is not easy to translate to other languages, as even other variants of Spanish may struggle to get some of the jokes.
"Una Película De Huevos" is a very good film and a huge step for Mexican animators. While probably most of its humor will be lost in translation to the non-Spanish speaking audience, it still is a very recommended film and hopefully, the beginning of a new generation of young Mexican filmmakers. 7/10
The film tells the story of Toto (Bruno Bichir), a "newborn" egg whose dream of becoming a chicken is shattered when he is selected by the farmer to be sent to a mall to be sold. Decided to not end his days as breakfast, he joins a group of rebel eggs in their escape plan but he is abandoned after the plan is screwed up. Now, with the help of another abandoned egg named Willy (Carlos Espejel) and a lunatic bacon stripe, he is on a quest to escape from the city and find a farm where he'll be able to finally become a chicken.
Sure, at first sight one wonders how a movie about talking eggs can work, but this one not only works, it's actually very good at it. Giving a new face to the classic hero's journey to find himself, the Riva Palacio brothers fill the movie with their witty brand of comedy although toned down so it could be enjoyed by kids of any age. The use of slapstick, irony, parody and all the elements that made their short animations famous are present in the film so it won't disappoint their followers.
The animation work is probably among the best seen in a Mexican film (animated productions are not common in the country), and the mix of traditional animation and computer-generated one is very fluid and barely noticeable. The story unfolds at a nice pace and while the story is obviously predictable, its great dose of humor and the overall well-development of the script make up for that flaw. It probably is not the best Mexican film ever made, but it is a big step forward for the young industry of animation in Mexico.
The voice work is remarkable and basically it gives the soul to the film and is the element that makes it so charming. Bruno Bichir and Carlos Espejel are great as the lead characters, with the serious attitude of the former making a good contrast with the comedic nature of the latter. As in the original shorts, the Riva Palacio brothers give their voices too and Rodolfo appears as the charming villain Coco and Gabriel as the Confi, the stoned hippie egg. Angélica Vale appears as Bibi, the romantic interest of our heroes, although her performance is nothing amazing.
The film is overall very good, but it has some details that diminishes its quality. The fact that the characters were originated in short films is apparent when some scenes seem too silly or with the only purpose of increasing the runtime to a feature length. However, its only true serious trouble lays in what is probably also its greatest strength: the kind of humor it uses the most (verbal) is not easy to translate to other languages, as even other variants of Spanish may struggle to get some of the jokes.
"Una Película De Huevos" is a very good film and a huge step for Mexican animators. While probably most of its humor will be lost in translation to the non-Spanish speaking audience, it still is a very recommended film and hopefully, the beginning of a new generation of young Mexican filmmakers. 7/10