Summary
A wonderful debut short film that is as heartfelt as it is visually stunning.
Apple may not be a name synonymous with animation just yet, but after distributing last year’s award-winning Wolfwalkers they seem determined to change that. BLUSH is the first collaboration between Apple Original Films and Skydance Animation, a short that will undoubtedly be spoken about in the same terms as Pixar’s short films.
In a dazzling opening, in which we follow a water droplet down through a space-born greenhouse, we’re introduced to a human horticulturalist traversing the stars. He crashes into an asteroid and soon his plants start to die out, with the traveller not far behind. All seems lost until the arrival of an alien who not only revives the plants, but provides him with a breathable atmosphere as well.
The pair build a lush green planet on the otherwise barren rock together, raising children and trees with equal pleasure. It’s a clean 11 minute short that uses no dialogue, but visually continues to advance the story with every frame. Indeed, some features struggle to fit this much storytelling into things more than ten times the length.
Despite the powerhouse production companies holding the pursestrings, the origins of BLUSH are far more personal. The directorial debut of the Emmy Award winning Joe Mateo — whose work has been seen in multiple Disney productions from Pocahontas through to Ralph Breaks the Internet — is inspired by the loss of his own wife to breast cancer in 2017.
As a result, there are times when this feels like the prologue to Pixar’s Up by way of a sci-fi façade — and that’s exactly the compliment that it’s intended to be. The film wordlessly pack a life well-lived into a compact framework, conveying the pain of loss and the hard work of moving on without a single spoken line. You would have to be made of pretty stern stuff to not get a little choked up by the end of the short.
If the narrative doesn’t get to you, then the jaw-dropping animation will. Mateo and his experienced crew have developed a beautiful use of light and colour contrasts as the planetoid slowly comes to life. It’s a vividly coloured piece, often framed by the light of a moon. Clever cutaways show the rock in its entirety: it’s a neat trick that shows the passing of time, but we also get to see the level of planning and detail that went into every inch of this production.
An artist once said that good art doesn’t make you feel something, but it gives you permission to recognise those feelings in yourself. Which is where BLUSH will connect with most audiences, whether they have suffered grief in this way or not. Now, if you’ll excuse me I have to go and hug my partner.
2021 | USA | DIRECTOR: Joe Mateo | WRITER: Joe Mateo | DISTRIBUTOR: Apple TV+ | RUNNING TIME: 11 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 1 October 2021
