Robot & Scarecrow (2017) User Reviews

Weep stupidly

[Snootz · 8/10 · 2 December 2017]

If you like emotional films and wish to find yourself weeping stupidly over a short... this is the one for you.

I find most shorts annoyingly lacking in script and plot-- and I admit this short is not "fully filled in". But it doesn't have to be. We don't need the back story, the reasons, the explanations to get the point of this simple statement. Nor do we need the writer / director (in this one case) to explain to us their entire thought process behind producing this as they did.

Usually I deplore "lazy" production teams leaving big gaps and holes in a story, leaving it up to the viewer to deduce the overall meaning. In this case however it works, splendidly. The CGI is very well done, the actors well-chosen (especially the robot; her face is ideal for the part). The beauty of production is eclipsed only by the rather astounding question of what is reality here and what isn't. (Was it a real or staged rock concert, was the robot ever really on stage or was that added in later, how many people were involved in producing this?). A film that succeeds in blurring the lines between fantasy and reality to the point the viewer can't tell which is which is rare. That this film actually makes that blur part of the story itself is masterful.

I rarely rate short films highly, usually because they're just rotten. This was splendid. I give it 8 rather than 10 stars only because it was limited in length and story line (ie, it isn't 10-star "above-and-beyond perfect"). It deserves every bit of 8 stars... and possibly a bit more.

Works for me...

[cdoggy99 · 8/10 · 7 June 2021]

Value the limited time you are given to spend with those you care about, you dont know what the expiration date is. Well done.

Two Ends of the Spectrum

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 2 April 2019]

A robot that performs wild dances on stage is running out of battery power. This also means her death. Meanwhile, a conventional scarecrow, comes down from his standard and heads for the fairgrounds. They are each falling apart in their own ways, but they connect and form a love relationship. That's about all there is to this but it works quite well.

touching

[Kirpianuscus · 12 April 2018]

A love story. on the line between fairy tale and Sci. Fi. poetic, seductive, impressive. from the artistic part to the story itself, from the realism of the atmosphere of summer festival to CGI and the delicacy of ggestures of the lead characters. a film who reminds old gems of genre. after its end , the satisfaction is completed by the discover of the actors names behind costumes. short, touching poetry. emotion is the lead virtue of a story who seems slice from a different era way to discover reality.

Different² does not mean the same

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 12 September 2018]

"Robot & Scarecrow" is a British award-winning short film from 2017 that runs for 15 minutes and was directed by Kibwe Tavares and he is also part of the writing staff here. The genre "animation" listed here on imdb and the photo are a bist misleading to be honest because this is really more of a live action movie with many effects and a mix of fantasy and science fiction eventually. The thing I liked the most here was perhaps the soundtrack, the music is subtle and still good to listen to most of the time, especially in the second half. But while the film also looked really good, I was not too impressed with the story. The love element at the core of it all is one that never really impressed me here the way it was written and portrayed. The interest by the scarecrow early on was still fine, even if it included nothing than curiosity and the will to party, not really drooling even. Early on the scenes behind the scenes at the concert location where the female robot gets built together were also good, but it quickly goes south. The way in which the scarecrow eventually falls in love did not feel particularly touching or authentic and the other way around is exactly the same with the female watching the male through the fence. Honestly, the only thing that connects them really is that they are both different compared to everybody else. But I struggled with believing that this makes them the same. The filmmakers came a bit short to explain this connection to be honest and I did not really feel it from the romantic perspective. Shame. I really wanted to like it. So yeahn, like I said the visual and audible aspects are pretty convincing and technically, it is a good film, but it is also evidence how the story is always a bigger deal breaker than everything else and even 3 really experienced younger actors cannot make the difference I hoped they would. Kinda surprised they participated here actually as this does not seem like a huge project that would attract big names given the filmmaker's experience, but yeah maybe it was the story and idea that convinced them. I give it a thumbs-down though. Watch something else instead.