This Oscar winning short film (Best Animated Short Film in 2009, making this the second ever anime to win an Oscar, although whether this truly is anime is a debate best left for later) is about a grumpy old man who builds additional levels onto his home in order to escape the water that is flooding his town. While rummaging through the lower levels, he is flooded with memories of his life and how the eternal continuum of time filled his journey with speckles of happiness and inklings of sorrow.
With the entire world as a metaphor for life and the passage of time itself, this artsy animated short sends you spiraling down memory lane and as you glimpse through the old man's life, you are posed with questions that we think about but never truly answer: If you were to contemplate on your life right now, what do you think would be the moments that you would take to your grave? How long will the people who matter now in your life be around? Is this what your parents go through and is this what you will go through too? For a "film" with no voice acting, it has a voice, as brief as it may be.
To accentuate the wistfulness of Le Maison en Petits Cubes comes a wonderfully orchestrated violin and piano combination that breathes life into the gloomy colors. Speaking of the colors, the animation itself is done in a Van Gough-esque style, much like the one in The Diary of Tortov Riddle. It sometimes feels like you're flipping through the pages of a gloomy picture book.
Drenched with meaning, seasoned with style and pregnant with emotions, Le Maison en Petits Cubes is 12 minutes well spent, although the feeling it leaves you with will last much longer.
