Loves Me... Loves Me Not (1993) User Reviews

Worth a look.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 10 September 2009]

While the stop-motion clay work is not particularly good for Aardman Studios (known for their great Wallace & Gromit and Shaun the Sheep films), the film is clever and well worth a look. In fact, because the claymation seemed a tad simple, I was very surprised to see that it was an Aardman effort.

The film is very simple and consists of an odd looking man (reminicent of Jay Leno, actually) pulling the petals off a flower--you know, doing the old "she loves me...she loves me not" bit. However, in an odd twist, whenever he says the "loves me not", this is accompanied by very bad things that occur to him. But, when he pulls another petal, everything is just dandy. He finally catches on that this is happening and it's very funny when he tries desperately to keep the last petal on the flower--lest it once again unleashed its fury on him! Very cute.

Funny and imaginative

[bob the moo · 20 May 2003]

A suave young man is in love with an image in a picture frame. To find out if the love he feels is reciprocated he picks a flower and, in the time honoured fashion, proceeds to pick a petal off saying `loves me' or `loves me not'. He continues this despite the pain of the flower – but then the emotion of loving or not loving manifests itself to him in surprising ways.

The story here allows for all sorts of things to happen animation-wise. Each time the man picks a `loves me' petal he is treated to something nice, however each time the `loves me not' petal comes off, his fate is a little less pleasant. This allows the film to imagine some humorous things to happen to the man – my favourite being him fighting off his own hand, which holds a gun to his head, as he tries to pick the `loves me' petal! The film builds nicely and it is a good, if predictable, climax.

The animation looks basic at first as it is two characters (including the flower) against a quite ordinary (dare I say – plain!) background. However the more extreme the events become the more the animation comes into play. I felt this justified the decision to keep a plain background as it made the sudden entry of things (good and bad) into the shot that much more immediate and evident.

Overall I must admit to not liking all of Aardman's work outside of their mainstream stuff like Wallace & Gromit, but I did enjoy this. It seemed to promise little from the start but came off as a well delivered, amusing little short.

Fantastic

[heywood100 · 9/10 · 20 May 2003]

Another early short from Aardman Animations of the Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run films. This one is something of a fantastic oddity - all it involves is a very large jawed man playing the 'she loves me; she loves me not' game with flower petals. At first he simply becomes a little depressed whenever he reaches 'she loves me not', but soon he is desperately having to avoid death from numerous angles. Even when he reaches 'she loves me' he has to dodge huge flying kisses. As usual, Aardman have made a brilliant animated short here - it's both humorous and looks great.