Sep 20 2012
The Invention that Changed it All
More, a short film about a lonely inventor, takes the viewer on a grim journey through the colorless world. Mark Osborne does this by using stop motion animation along with eerie music to captivate his viewer’s imagination. This eerie music coalesces with the colorless world to create a sad atmosphere. This sadness is palpable throughout the short film. The lack of dialogue further instills sadness in the viewer. Claymation serves to further enhance the visual effects and make the characters more grim. During the day the inventor leads a boring life of toiling on the factory line while being yelled at by his boss. He reminisces about his blissful childhood and hopes one day he will be able to create an invention that makes his life more enjoyable. Once the inventor finally makes his dream come true, he becomes known as the the greatest inventor of all time. His new product called Bliss fills the store shelves and he becomes very successful. But his success comes at a great cost because it changes him. The inventor realizes happiness cannot be invented.
The mysterious short film, Madame Tutli-Putli, takes the viewer on suspenseful train ride. Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski do something for the first time in film history. They incorporate live human eyes into their masterpiece. These human eyes play a significant role in the development of Madame Tutli-Putli. At the beginning, she is beautiful and has young looking eyes. As the movie progresses, she becomes worn down and you can see her beauty fading as bags appear under her eyes. The animation for this film is almost life like. This serves to incorporate the human element into the film and allows the viewer to feel for Madame Tutli-Putli. We feel for Madame Tutli-Putli when we see her at the beginning of the film cluttered with heavy luggage. The short film has some gruesome scenes like when a man is gets his kidney stolen by organ harvesters or when noxious green gas pours from the vents. But these gruesome scenes serve a special purpose. These scenes transform Madame Tutli-Putli into a completely different person. She is carefree and is not afraid like she was at the beginning of the film. The auditory effects further enhance the film and create suspense. The music keeps the viewer on his or her toes, and the music prevents the film from being completely silent. The sound effects instill empathy in the viewer like when the viewer hears the shudder of Madame Tutli-Putli falling to the ground. There is hope at the end for Madame Tutli-Putli as she escapes the robbers, the noxious green gas, and the dangerous train ride.
Image Source: https://files.eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/3239/2012/09/15221309/more-picture-300×164.png
What’s wrong with Madame Tutli-Putli? Why does she become more free by witnessing such atrocious events? I can’t help but think that there’s something seriously wrong with her. It seems that the worse that her environment gets, the happier she gets. Is she some sort of psychopath?
I think that the author tried to portray Madame Tutli-Putli as someone that is sick inorder to capture the brilliance and transformation of Madame Tutli-Putli in this work of art. She becomes more free and careless after witnessing these atrocious events in order to escape the harsh realities of the train ride. This also allows her to become more alive. She might be a psychopath, but she might be used to the sheltered life and an experience like this can actually give her the chance to live.