Death (2019)

Criminally short but great.




I was thoroughly shocked I wasn't aware of this little short, I am hardcore for The Sandman and even more hardcore for his older sister, and it surprised me even more to learn this only came out 3 years ago but then again life got thrown into a whirlpool quite quick so I'll cut me some slack. I was expecting before doing any real brief research a 30 something minute adaptation of one of Neil Gaiman's stories, but what I got was a 17 minute original story of an artist who is severely having a rough time before meeting a quite sweet girl who obliges to pose for him, before big bombshell here folks, friggin' cutie pie yumness over there, she's Death. I am trying really reallyyyy hard here not to just devolve into just obscene gushing over this woman, I am physically attempting to contain my immeasurable joy in seeing her and my neverending crush on this lovely lady. She has my heart in this world and the next, it is her above anyone else, and I am a shamelessly wholesome Dude stating facts. I gotta go now. Color me impressed with how much good stuff they put in this absurdly short film, you get a real solid grasp on our painter Vincent, his life, his passion for art, and how he manifests his inner demons. I really can see so many people just getting it, you know? They know what it's like, they have been there before, it's very easily relatable. The animation is very good as well, with how lighting and atmosphere changes so quick, the abandoned streets of Gotham (Represent!), the character designs I see bits of anime influence but this is very much the standard quality of DC animated projects, it sorta reminded me of a mix between Batman Year One and Throne Of Atlantis. And I gotta admit I've never been able to quantify the voice I hear in my head when I read The Sandman books and come across Death, but Jamie Chung pretty rock solid choice I very much liked her vocal performance here. Leonardo Nam gets that emotional drama through in a short period and while I saw that ending coming a substantial mile away it didn't detract at all from his last minutes of acting. Talking of which, wow that was so cool! Amazing how far we've come with animation. And can you believe, you can watch the whole thing on the YouTubes, no charge! Worth the time in my opinion. I give it 4 stars, 9/10! The only reason it isn't 10/10 is because it's just too damn short. Yet what a strangely accurate portrayal of life, short yet filled with so much, joy and sadness, the facing of death around you before your own time comes, the pursuit of things you love. Here one minute. Gone the next. But you get what everyone gets, you get a lifetime.

When Death Is On The Mind....

Not so much the actual act of dying but more the personification of Death. I have been reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, specifically the Death novels (I'm currently on Soul Music.), which are great and very enjoyable reads that I do recommend if you like more off the wall, absurd, and just plain fun writings in the world. But also, I watched Death Takes A Holiday and it was quite good I have to say, almost certainly worth talking about more in the future, and even a Twilight Zone episode that may not be as surprising as others but it was still good and young Robert Redford makes it worth your time. Now of course it has some inspiration from one of my many reviewers, in this case Lindsay Ellis (Formerly known as the Nostalgia Chick) who did a brief sort of, example slideshow of the personification of Death itself filed under her series Loose Canon which is a highly entertaining and informative series which you can watch on YouTube. So yeah, she certainly put me in the right mindframe and death is more common than dirt around Halloween time. I saw at least 3 Reapers on Halloween day, so that was cool. And as I live and breathe now, I saw Death. I mean like, the real deal. Straight from the pages of Neil Gaiman's acclaimed Sandman series, I saw her. All black clothes, 80s level of big hair, I could have sworn I saw the ankh around her neck, and it was as brief as a whisper. Came and went in the blink of an eye. It's a shame I'll have to probably wait 100 years to see her again but hopefully not or hopefully so depending on your point of view. Yeah, it's been an interesting week to say the least. So what do I make of all of it? Difficult to say, but I highly doubt it will hinder how I live my life in the future, yesterday was such a wonderful day and today may have been just a wretched day of existence but I assure you I am quite well and in much better spirits as I write this. I do have to say Lindsay brought up a classic film, one I have never seen and very much want to, so with Death on the mind, tomorrow we will watch The Seventh Seal and I'll see how much I like it.