"Bird Karma" is a 5-minute animated short film from 2018 by Dreamworks, which means its looks aren't too bad, but basically everything else is. The director here is William Salazar and he gives is the story of a greedy long-legged bird who is pretty talented at catching fish and frogs, but he just stops caring for the "normal" ones when there is a golden fish that catches his attention. What begins as a Moby Dick / Captain Ahab story line and feels almost a bit too much for 5 minutes, eventually turns into a King Midas tale. The good thing is that nothing really about this short film feels predictable, the bad news is that nothing really makes sense either. Like why would the apparently carnivorous fish not attack the bird earlier. What was with these bizarre rainbow references. Why would the golden fish be willing to jump into the bord's hands/wings and laugh, not even struggling because he isn't in the water. Many questions can be ask here and the fact that it is fantasy/animation cannot make up for any of these. It also isn't a funny film honestly, which could have saved at least some of it. I am surprised this made the list of ten potential Oscar nominees, but at least it did not get nominated. I think it is the worst potential nominee we have from this year. Some of the nominees aren't great either, but still better than this one here. Dreamworks also came short with Bilby, but still that one is while not being great either infinitely superior to Bird Karma. Birds are frequent characters in all kinds of animated movies, long or short, but here you see how it shouldn't be done. I also did not like the static camera to be honest. It is not a negative deal breaker and you can do it, but then you have to deliver in other fields. Good news is there is no spoken language, so you can watch this film without subtitles no matter where you are from, but honestly why would you? I give it a definite thumbs-down and there was no moment of hesitation for me. Not recommended.
Review of Bird Karma
