“Strings”. This is one of the most interesting movies I’ve seen in a while. By interesting, I really mean unique.

I believe it’s a Danish film. View the trailer to get an idea of what it’s about. Just don’t be too rash to judge it based on the trailer. It really doesn’t do it any justice. Check out the (Flash) site instead.

I’d highly recommend Strings to anyone that is looking for something out of the ordinary in terms of fantasy/sci-fi movies. At a whim I picked it up at the library, thinking it might be somewhat simliar to the legendary Jim Henson movie, called Dark Crystal (circa 1982).

However, much to my delight, this movie turned out to be a whole lot darker, and had more character depth than I would have thought possible with puppets.

Yes, although all the characters are puppets (or to be more clear, marionettes) and they are strange to watch at first (they have no mouth movements!) … the story is good enough to keep it entertaining.

One other thing, it’s not so much a kids movie since it deals with some darker issues and emotions. So beware … this is no Pinocchio!

Those who watch it are bound to catch some of the references to Iron Maiden (one of the characters looks like Eddie), and also what I thought was influence from Adam Jones (from his Tool videos), and perhaps even Metallica (i.e. “the master of puppets is pulling your strings …”).

However, all the references are subtle, so don’t think it’s going to be too dark for your tastes … this is more a fairytale story than anything else.

The plot is fairly decent (however, don’t expect a Shyamalan like experience) … but the amazing thing is the use of the puppets strings throughout the story line. You’ll have to see it to figure out why it’s not cheesy to not have removed the actual strings from the movie.

Yes, there are no special effects here! They left the strings in. Again, there is good reason why it is called “Strings”. Who says you need special effects to make a great movie these days? When it comes down to it … it’s all about the story telling, right?

If you are looking for something outside of the mainstream this movie might be for you.

I thought I would post this, since a lot of the people that visit my blog are highly creative and would enjoy a film such as this … at least from an artistic stand point.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 23rd, 2006 at 4:28 pm and is filed under Animation, HodgePodge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.