Before we start talking about the, quite frankly, sublime Birdboy, I want to promise you one thing; you have never watched anything like this. The winner of the famous Goya awards in Spain, the team behind this disjointed fairy tale have created a distinctive and powerful animated film that is seeping with a bustling dark undercurrent. Created by Alberto Vazquez and Pedro Rivero and adapted from an incredible graphic novel, Birdboy is a visual feast that will take you on a route that has a disturbing peculiar heart.
Birdboy is set in a world populated by anthropomorphic woodland creatures, laughing and joking and poking fun at the outsider; Birdboy. What could have been a moral lesson about learning to accept people despite their differences becomes dark when an explosion wipes out half of the population and the other half must adapt to their desolate world. Dinki, a girl who is affectionate to Birdboy with a tongue in cheek attitude, must come to grips with the loss of her caring father while Birdboy is pushed further into the outsider territory.
There are some movies that are masterpieces no matter what length, and Birdboy is one of them. It is saturated by perfect visuals that contrast the vibrant pastel world with the dystopian one. The narrative graphics shape a distinct discourse and decorate an incredible heartfelt story. The characters are full of life bent out of shape by real life disasters and villains. Nuclear warfare and army oppression, loss and abandonment, whispers in the shadows and the words. Our heroes are not perfect and yes, they may be animals but they have pulses, stammering of a need to find home and love again. It is superb and the animation is inimitable.
Birdboy director Vazquez is going to be at Bilbao’s Film Festival Fant this year and will showcase his artwork.
