The Danish Poet (2006)

Sadly Over-hyped

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Torill Kove's Oscar-winning short "The Danish Poet" is a look at how we as humans come to be who we are. Another thing that I derived from it is the question of how different we really are from each other. Much like how the characters aren't sure which Scandinavian country certain people are from, we often aren't sure about our background. Some people will claim to have only one type of ancestry, but one can't know for certain. The truth is, we're all probably mixed.Other than that, it's an interesting cartoon. The animation isn't the most innovative, but it has a good plot, and that's what matters. In focusing on how her parents met, the storyteller reminds us that we all had to come from somewhere.

This is one of the best animated shorts I have ever seen.Sure, there is no CGI, no wow effects, and none of the commonalities of modern animation. In fact this is a 2D animation, that will remind some people of the images of Vicky the Viking series of the 1970s.However, this short has something that most modern animation films do not have, and that is what makes it unforgettable to me. The secret of The Danish Poet is that tells an amazing story, which happens to be based on real events. This is a story that speaks of serendipity, synchronicity, and the inter-relatedness of the world. A story that shows a world in which even the bad stuff that happens to us can take us to amazing places and be meaningful. A story that shows that every twist and turn in life is a creative process. The Danish Poet is, in the end, a story about love minus the cheese, told in a simple, funny and magical way.The short is beautifully narrated, it has a point, it tells a complete story, it makes you feel and think. Fantastic.

"The Danish Poet" is an animated short film that runs for 15 minutes and was made roughly 10 years ago. it won an Academy Award in the Animated Short Film category and was, so far, the biggest success for writer and director Torill Kove. Funnily enough, the movie was nominated for best short film at the Norvegian Film Awards (Amandas), but lost there. Kove is pretty successful with the Academy. Apart from her win here, she has two more nominations, one of these very recently.Still, I did not manage to appreciate this short film. It has a touch of everything: drama, comedy, romance, history, but I personally felt that it did not really deliver in any of these areas. In my personal case, it also did not help that I was not fond of the animation style at all. The narrator here is Liv Ullmann. This was one of her last projects, she is not too prolific anymore these days being way into her 70s. Ullmann is probably Norway's most known actress of all time, but don't worry: Her narration is in English (maybe because the NFB produced this) and the characters do not have any audible dialog. The only people I could maybe recommend this too would be Norwegians (or Danes) because of some of the historic references, but even these did not impress me. I am genuinely surprised and disappointed that this managed to beat the wonderfully moving "Little Matchgirl" back 10 years ago. Not recommended.

This is a sweet story about a long chain of seemingly random events that eventually led to the birth of the person who wrote the story (though it was read by Liv Ullman). Not surprisingly, there are some touches that seem very Scandinavian--such as the introduction, the way that death is talked about as well as the veneration of the story "Kristin Lavransdatter" (the movie version was coincidentally directed by Liv Ullman and I have reviewed it--but this isn't the place to get into that).The first time I saw this film, I was underwhelmed and gave it only a mildly favorable review despite it being an Oscar winner. However, I saw it again a few weeks later and was surprised how much more I enjoyed the film the second time. I really think most of the reason I wasn't impressed at first is because at least visually speaking, it's not as pretty a film as the rest of the other nominees. THE LITTLE MATCHGIRL was one of the prettier Disney films I have seen using traditional animation, LIFTED is as good a product as you'll see from Pixar, NO TIME FOR NUTS was another excellent CG film packaged with the ICE AGE films and Maestro, though made by a small studio, was nearly as pretty as more commercial CG films. In contrast, THE DANISH POET looked very old fashioned--much like a "Madeline" cartoon.The second time I saw it, though, I noticed more of the cute little artistic touches--like all the cows falling down the ramps and other odd embellishments. However, what really stood out most the second time was the really sweet nature of the film and how it caused an emotional reaction in me at the end. Charming and sweet--this is something the other films lacked. I still think LIFTED might have been the most enjoyable and best made of the shorts, but THE DANISH POET was a real labor of love and had a lot of depth to it.