Animated Short Review: Runaway
Cordell Barker Cartoon For National Film Board of Canada
May 13, 2009
Winnipeg-born animator Cordell Barker has an extremely short, but sweet, resume: 1988's "The Cat Came Back," and 2002's "Strange Invaders."
Both cartoons have won several awards, and were both nominated for Best Animated Short at the Oscars. They're considered classics of Canadian animation for very good reason. Animation maven Jerry Beck even named "The Cat Came Back" – a cartoon adaptation of the classic children's song – #32 on his list of the 50 greatest animated shorts of all time.
Now Barker has returned with his third cartoon short, "Runaway," which gives the viewer an inside look at the goings-on inside an out-of-control locomotive. It's a cynical metaphor for our modern world, featuring a vicious class struggle where no one wins.
"Runaway" has been entered in the Cannes Film Festival where it will play at the 48th Annual Critics' week. It's a parallel event where animated shorts run between films made by first or second-time filmmakers.
Cordell Barker Writes, Directs, Animates Runaway for NFB
Barker has described the short as "a metaphor film" for our out-of-control world and it's easy to see. Whether it's the train captain (Barker collaborator and fellow animator Richard Condie) more interested in romancing a comely passenger (Muriel Hogue) than taking care of business, the contrast between the behaviour in the First Class lounge versus the Economy section, or the gratitude of the upper class passengers when the proletariat sacrifice everything they have to keep the engine going, Barker paints a cynical view of how we treat each other and the world around us. It's quite dark, but very funny.
The only person who comes close to capturing the audience's sympathy is the hapless fireman (Leonard Waldner), who is indirectly responsible for causing the calamity and does everything he possibly can to fix the damage, with little recognition for his efforts.
The little details are what really sell this flick. Whether it's the continued bouncing of an older woman's butt cheeks after she removes her dress to fuel the locomotive, or a man scrubbing his back with a chicken, Barker knows to leaven the dark tone of this short with bursts of whimsical humour.
The sprightly jazz score is courtesy of Benoît Charest, best known for composing for the Oscar-nominated score for 2003's The Triplets of Belleville.
The Final Analysis
Even though it sucks that Barker doesn't make more animated shorts (3 in 21 years!), at least when he finally gets back in the studio, the resulting short is well worth the wait. "The Runaway" is another great cartoon from the NFB and Cordell Barker. It gets an 8/10.
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