GOPHER BROKE was nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Short and while it is a cute four minutes of film, it also seems a bit ordinary. Now this isn't to say that it's bad. It's just that in the last decade there have been so many similar looking films that it just doesn't seem very special. With Pixar, Dreamworks, Fox and many, many independents making films of about comparable graphic quality, GOPHER BROKE isn't exactly innovative. Now the main character is pretty cute and the story engaging, but I also wished the film had been longer than just four minutes.
With this style of animation getting better and better, the bar is being raised and GOPHER BROKE seems like yet another CGI film and that's really it. By the way, if you'd like to see a smaller studio that did an exceptional job with similar graphics, try watching the Welsh film FETCH. While only about a minute and a half long, it seems to pack in more laughs and is a delight.
With this style of animation getting better and better, the bar is being raised and GOPHER BROKE seems like yet another CGI film and that's really it. By the way, if you'd like to see a smaller studio that did an exceptional job with similar graphics, try watching the Welsh film FETCH. While only about a minute and a half long, it seems to pack in more laughs and is a delight.