"Soar" is an American 7-minute short film (5 minutes without credits) from 2004 and at this point today still the only writing and directing credit for Alyce Tzue. It's the animated story of a young woman finding a tiny human-like creature that apparently crashed with his spaceship and is now in danger of being left behind unless he quickly flies back up to join his people. It's actually how unharmed he is given the several times he fell down. Anyway, animation here is fine, even if I felt there was something strange with the tiny guy's face expressions. But the woman and the landscapes look fine. The story is a bit too simple, even for this runtime. It never delivers in this department and the filmmaker's attempt to go out on a high note with the star scene and the music trying to convince us how special that moment was felt rather embarrassing I would say because honestly everything before that felt so shallow mostly. One example would be how scared the little guy is initially, but seconds later he warms up to the woman already as if they were the best friends. It may be because of her warm aura. That one she does have indeed, but that simply doesn't cut the cake as an explanation. Imagine you meet a little mouse, that's maybe the right approach in size and proportion, and think of how scared she will be the first days, yet this little guy is 100% trusting minutes later. The common goal (an altruist for the woman) is also not a sufficient explanation. There is really nothing to this short film except the visual side and if Tzue decides to return to filmmaking, I hope she has improved on writing in the meantime. This is just for the very biggest animation fans here. Everybody else can skip it. Oh yeah, no spoken dialogues in here, so you won't need subtitles even if you aren't fluent in English.
Review of Soar
