“Garden Party” – Nominee, Best Animated Short Film

I was extremely excited to see "Garden Party" once I heard about it from the nominations. The trailer (which I included below) is absolutely stunning and had I not known that the film was animated, I likely would have assumed it was some sort of documentary about frogs living in pools and backyards.

After watching the film however, "Garden Party" is SO much more, and yes, the rest of the film looks just as good as the trailer!

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Summary
(Spoiler Alert)
Firstly, this film is absolutely beautiful! From the first frames of a lone frog jumping into a pool, viewed from far beneath the water(OMG, is it the viewpoint of the man at the bottom?), to the changing angles of sunlight as the afternoon progresses and up to the titular party as the film's end, everything looks incredible.

The frogs are definitely the star of the show here. Now, I'm no expert on frogs, but they look real to me. The loose "story" starts with a slender green frog swimming in some water. It crawls out and basks in the sun near the pool, catching the eye of a large brown toad nearby. The frogs make their way into the house that accompanies the pool where the green frog checks out the bedroom, while the toad enjoys a variety of snacks in the kitchen. From the caviar, expensive desserts, and seafood remnants around the house, it's easy to see that the occupants are quite wealthy...and apparently had their own raucous party recently.

Throughout the film, we get glimpses of what might have happened at this home. There is the broken security camera, the broken safe, and of course the bullet holes in the front door, which stands slightly ajar in the evening sun. These elements are interspersed with the antics of the amphibians, specifically the toad getting stuck in a jar of cakes and the other frog that chases a butterfly around the backyard throughout the film.

It's not until nightfall, when the butterfly frog makes his way inside and happens to leap onto a control board, turning on lights, cameras, and pool pumps, that the film gets really interesting. We see a dusty pistol on a desk, a phone still off the hook and sending a steady tone, and finally a full view of the backyard pool area, littered with leaves and other debris. Music starts in as the frog hits the buttons to turn on the stereo system and the waterfalls and lights turn on, starting to work on clearing the stagnant pool water. More frogs and toads come out to join the party, creating their own chorus of croaking.

One of the final images is that of a man floating to the surface of the pool, face swollen and bloated beyond recognition. He is wearing what appears to be a very expensive robe and gold chain. The frogs take little notice of their new party guest, other than using him as a raft while they play in the pool. The mystery of what happened is gone, and the frogs are left to enjoy their pool party.

Analytical Critique
I can't say enough how beautiful this film is. Despite the grisly subject matter that underlies the beauty, I can't help watching it over and over for the visuals alone. Each time I watch, I notice a new detail. It's clear to me that the creators took great pains to be as detailed as possible. The frogs look like real frogs. The food looks like real food. The furnishings in the house look like real furnishings. Everything in this film looks so real that it could pass for live action to most people.

​It's interesting that this film is nominated in a category with films that are hand drawn ("Dear Basketball"), two "cartoon style" computer animated films ("Lou" and "Revolting Rhymes"), and a stop motion film ("Negative Space"). It just shows what a unique category this can be that it pulls in films of such variety.

So while "Garden Party" far outshines the rest of this pack in terms of sheer visual appeal, films don't win here just because they are flashy and look good. There is little in the way of actual story in this film, and the parts of the story we do get are incomplete. The action is focused on the frogs, but the glimpses of the surrounding house and yard in shambles leave me asking so many questions. Perhaps that's part of the appeal, that we get to fill in the gaps in the story. It's pretty clear how the man ended up in his swimming pool (assuming it is HIS), the bullet holes and toppled furniture tell enough of the story for us to understand at a high level. But I want to know who he was, why someone stormed his castle, guns blazing, shooting out cameras and ultimately dumping his body in the pool.

The other things we don't get is a firm grasp of time in the film. The action shown on screen clearly happens over the course of an afternoon. We see the angle of the sun getting steeper and in the final scene, the sun is gone with the yard lighting replacing it. Based on the body floating in the pool, it seems like he's been there for a while. The flies and rotting food in the kitchen scenes would also back this up. But are we talking about a few days? A few weeks? It's tough to tell. We also don't know if this is the first time the frogs have enjoyed this type of "party." The lighting, water, and sound systems seem to get turned on by chance when the butterfly frog hops across the control board, but is it possible that they've been partying every night for the last week since the murder happened?

All of these are perhaps too much to ask of a film this short, but I feel like there is a feature lurking in the background, from the point of view of the attackers who raided the house perhaps. I'm sure this would be a much larger undertaking in order to make it look as good as this film, so we might be waiting a while for that.

Final Analysis
In the end, I feel like this film is breaking new ground in terms of animated realism. I'm no computer graphics wizard, but I'm sure there are software and hardware elements that were created and refined for this film that will make things look even better in the future. We have come a long way from the films like "Tin Toy" (1988) and "Knick Knack" (1989) when Pixar started making computer animated short films. I'm excited to see what is next on the horizon.