A special agent takes possession of the nuclear football – a suitcase containing all manner of devices but, crucially, the big red button which can be used to start thermonuclear war. He cannot resist giving the contents a look but when he does a pigeon, innocently wanting food, ends up trapped inside with access to all the controls.
With a look of Pixar about it, Lucas Martell's film is pretty good and has a sense of humour that would see him fit in pretty well at that studio even if this film is nowhere near their standard. The crux of the film is funny in that it is a battle between a secret agent and an anthropomorphised pigeon with his finger, er, foot, on the button. This produces some good laughs in the short running time and I generally liked the idea – the problem I had throughout was the suitcase itself. The human and the pigeon are easy to understand and nice characters – the suitcase is not. What it is capable of becomes the whole short film and the film never lets me forget how odd it is – to the point that I was distracted by it being essentially a flying saucer with a handle. It sounds odd to criticise a film about a crafty pigeon battling an human for being "unrealistic" but unfortunately this is what is wrong with the suitcase side of it.
Of course the whole thing is unrealistic but the pigeon and the human and the setup I can buy within the context of the film – the film didn't manage to do that for the case, it always seemed odd even within this animation. It is still a fun film though and it is very well made by Martell, but it was just that aspect of the idea that I felt was holding it back.
With a look of Pixar about it, Lucas Martell's film is pretty good and has a sense of humour that would see him fit in pretty well at that studio even if this film is nowhere near their standard. The crux of the film is funny in that it is a battle between a secret agent and an anthropomorphised pigeon with his finger, er, foot, on the button. This produces some good laughs in the short running time and I generally liked the idea – the problem I had throughout was the suitcase itself. The human and the pigeon are easy to understand and nice characters – the suitcase is not. What it is capable of becomes the whole short film and the film never lets me forget how odd it is – to the point that I was distracted by it being essentially a flying saucer with a handle. It sounds odd to criticise a film about a crafty pigeon battling an human for being "unrealistic" but unfortunately this is what is wrong with the suitcase side of it.
Of course the whole thing is unrealistic but the pigeon and the human and the setup I can buy within the context of the film – the film didn't manage to do that for the case, it always seemed odd even within this animation. It is still a fun film though and it is very well made by Martell, but it was just that aspect of the idea that I felt was holding it back.