Konterr
Brilliant and touching
Manthast
Absolutely amazing
Merolliv
I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
Payno
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Lee Eisenberg
Frank Mouris's Academy Award-winning "Frank Film" consists of magazine articles forming a collage to two different sets of narration: one chronicling the narrator's life, the other a series of words beginning with F. It strikes me as an experimental movie. It's not anything special, but I appreciate how they laid everything out. I haven't seen either of the other shorts nominated for Best Animated Short that year (I guess that it depends on whether or not they're available online), but this one is still worth seeing. I understand that Mouris only made a few movies after this one. It's probably hard to make a career out of independent animated shorts.Anyway, an interesting short. Available on YouTube.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Frank Film" is a 9-minute animated short film that won Frank Mouris, the man who made it and also the one we hear in here, his first and only Academy Award. He was surprisingly unprolific in the over 4 decades since his biggest career achievement, at least in terms of film. So yeah, I cannot agree with the Academy here. Neither the animation nor the comments are awards-worthy in anyway and this film is evidence of how weak the (animated) short film genre was in the 1970s compared to previous decades if films like this could receive major awards attention. I did not enjoy the watch. It is not as bad as many other experimental films, but the two voices we hear at the same time become annoying pretty quickly, so that I would have given this one an even lower rating if it had gone on for a couple more minutes. Not good. Not recommended.
tavm
So I just got finished watching this animated short by Frank and Caroline Mouris that won the Academy Award for the year it was made and was put into the Library of Congress' National Film Registry during the '90s. In it, Frank is speaking in two soundtracks: one telling his life story and the other listing words that start with "F" or something with a similar sound. This happens as constantly flashing images of something relating to whatever subject is at hand is mentioned. It's initially fascinating to watch and hear but after a while I wondered when the whole damn thing would end! Still, it's worth a look if you're curious about this sort of thing.
Robert Reynolds
This short, which most deservedly won the Academy Award and I believe has been included in the Library of Congress's Film Preservation listings as well, defies description with mere words. It must be seen to be appreciated. At first I found the two separate soundtracks jarring, because the same person recorded them both. But gradually, I began to flow with the two distinct, yet equally interesting, narratives. The visual images correspond to one or the other narrative at different points. Compelling to watch.This clearly was a labor intensive project, as any form of stop-motion animation has to be. Think about how long it took to shoot just 60 seconds worth of film and realize this is nine minutes long! Well worth tracking down, I saw this on Sundance Channel last night. Most highly recommended, but if your idea of animation begins and ends with Bugs Bunny or Speed Racer, you may not care for this at all.