The Studio AKA Pica Towers trilogy was a bit perplexing to me. Not in form or the aesthetic– the film noir-esque style, the adorable (and sometimes dead) robots, the lighting, the typography, the shot composition, the camera angles revealing new truth– all that was quite appealing and amusing.
No, it wasn’t the film style, but rather the story line, the narrative, that lost me. There is darkness, torture, death, religion, blood, a cute puppy, technology-bots, crafty animation. But after watching about three times, I am still clueless on what exactly happened in The Good News (what WAS the “good news?), Hounds of Flesh (is that dog going to get sick from drinking blood– Veterinarian, please!), and Pizza Sangre (why did they all of a sudden start talking/squeaking/making noise?)…
The animation and the overall feeling these films evoke is wonderful. When an animated short can evoke any sort of emotion, can we all agree it’s powerful? Of course! But when I walk away, and I am still asking myself… (I saw that my peers were asking the same question in their posts)… what was that about???… are they successful? Perhaps the goal isn’t to reveal all the answers in three very short minutes. Perhaps the purpose is so creep viewers out, to make them interested, to spark conversation… but if the purpose is telling a clear narrative, no I would say Pica Towers was not successful. There are obviously talented people working over there at Studio AKA, as I browsed through their other works too, but this trilogy was lost on me a bit.
Perhaps it is just your Type A, OCD, must-know-the-answer type viewer I am that drove me to near insanity after watching these adorable, yet creepy little bots wreak havoc on their film-noir, beautifully lit, and apparently dangerous, big bad world.