Don’t Deliver Food to Pica Towers

I have to say that I am a bit confused by the Pica Towers shorts. I watched them several times, both in order and out of order, and still are at a loss to what is really going on. I do see how they are connected. It is like watching the events of the day through different people’s eyes, each being at a different important moment of the day.

Visually, I get the feeling of those classic Rankin/Bass stop motion holiday specials (which, as it turns out were all done in Japan by Tadahito Mochinaga) but with a dark twist. I wouldn’t say Tim Burton, but rather an almost H.P. Lovecraft feel in the aesthetic. Very sparse, very dark, very not boding well for the characters, very pedestrian. What you see is halls that are rather nondescript and could be anywhere but the nondescript things is what is dangerous because something more lurks beneath the surface yet we don’t know what. What I, the viewer, don’t know is what ends up killing the nun and the torture guy. The not-quite-stop-motion feel of the animation gives a more handmade feel to the shorts even though they are digitally animated.

What I don’t get, even though all three shorts are strung together with a few common threads, is why things are happening in the shorts and what is the impetus for them. I think each short is very nuclear in its storytelling: you could watch one and stop without losing much. One would lose context from just seeing one but I think the lack of context in general is what helps these disparate shorts come together as a whole.

What I take away from these is that while context can mean everything, a finely crafted story and/or effective storytelling can deal with a lack of context and put events into perspective even though everything may be disparate.