Short Subject: Feast (2014)

This short should come with a warning not to watch when you’re hungry.

I mean everything in this short looks delicious from the spaghetti to the steaks.  Even the healthy food like the soybeans, although I do like watching Winston spitting out the Brussel sprouts when he realizes that aren’t tasty like bacon and eggs. 

Not only does the food look great but the backgrounds do too.  The whole thing has this overly lit look like it’s too bright from the sun, making a nice contrast with the break up scenes when everything is dark, and it works really well.  The character design however is meh.  Winston is adorable no question, but the human characters just look off.  Something about the size of the eyes with the face just doesn’t look proportional to me.  Thankfully the style choice of keeping things mostly from Winston’s point of view and thus of people’s feet, no doubt a nod to Lady and the Tramp which does the same thing, keeps that lack to a minimum.

Finally I love how Winston gives up his love fatty foods for the love of his owner and helps him get back together with the girl, and the transition to the wedding is my favourite one in the short.  He proves himself to indeed be man’s best friend by putting aside his desires for others, and he even gets rewarded for that by their kids dropping meatballs, cupcakes, and burgers, all over the floor.

Again, like ‘Nessie’ this is a very good looking, fun, short.  The human designs I don’t care for, but other than that I think this is excellent.