Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Imdbidia The Dam Keeper is a beautiful hand-made oil-painted animated longish short film that touches on very sad themes: loneliness, bullying and social exclusion. It speaks of the importance of humour and creativity to overcome the harshness of life, and is a reminder that unfunded fears take us to places we should never go as they have not doors for those people who want to get near us to enter.The dam in the film is a not of water, if of dark clouds, pollution and darkness overall. A metaphor for the darkness that we all keep away every day, even though is there, around the corner. It is also about social darkness, because that is what most hurts the piggy, not the polluted air around; you can learn to control that, but to learn to deal with social exclusion and darkness is something that you learn the hard way if ever learned.The film is very charming, very emotional and touching, greatly enhanced by a fantastic music score, and the wonderful non-invasive narration by Lars Mikkelsen. The textures and colors of the film, and its painterly nature help to create a timeless piece of animation.To me, the main fault of the film is that we don't get to know why every single child in the school bullies the piggy and every adult ignores an orphan. It seems unrealistic and something that I want to believe rarely happens, especially if you are the person who keeps the community safe. It seems not to make sense, to me.Overall, a wonderful animated film.

felix-su This film is a rare and wonderful gem that stays with you for days after viewing. Visually, it resembles a series of beautiful watercolors, with the animation having an almost a stop-motion quality to it. Though the story is told (nearly) without words, it's accompanied by a moving score and the familiar sounds of children's laughter and crying.The titular hero--a steadfast little pig--is adorable and sweet-natured. His daily torment and isolation at school are heartbreaking to watch. He's clearly deprived of the love and appreciation he deserves, and you wish you could reach through the screen to comfort and protect him. Be warned--as beautiful as this film is, it's also bound to evoke some of your ugliest childhood memories, whether you ever were on the giving or receiving end of bullying, or simply stayed silent on the sidelines as it happened.Growing up, many of us built our own "dams" to cope with the darkness of teasing, bullying, and loneliness. When the dams broke, having someone there on the other side--a friend, parent, teacher, anyone--could make all the difference. To me, this is the core message of the film. If you have young children that are just starting school, consider watching and discussing with them.

nick.johnson This short tells the story of a pig who's responsible for "keeping the dam", a critically important job inherited from his father. We're shown that this involves winding a crank tied to a windmill on top of a dam overlooking a small town. This job must be performed at regular intervals or else the town will be consumed by...uh...water?...no, it's a dark cloud of...pollution?...What?!?I was very confused and distracted by why the windmill on top of the dam needed to be wound, then later in the film we do get to see what happens when the dam doesn't get "kept" properly....I thought we were seeing dark water over-topping the dam and flooding the town, but it is later described as "dark clouds". The animation was so rough and impressionistic, it wasn't at all clear what we were expected to be seeing.So...the windmill isn't a windmill but a giant fan, powered by a wound-up spring, which blows the pollution clouds away? Why is it on top of a dam? Since it's on the dam anyway, why isn't it powered by the water pressure that the dam is holding back? Also, if this job, whatever it is, is so important to the health of the whole town, why is it left in the hands of a grade-schooler?The titular part of the story made so little sense that it took away much of my interest in appreciating the other part of the story, about isolation, loneliness, and bullying that this youngster experiences at the hands of his school classmates. When a new kid, a fox, comes to town, a unlikely friendship develops. That story was interesting and touching, but it would have been more effective without any dam keeping.

Hellmant 'THE DAM KEEPER': Four Stars (Out of Five)An 18 minute animated short; which was nominated for an Academy Award, for Best Animated Short Film, at the upcoming 87th Academy Awards. It was written and directed by Robert Kondo and Daisuke 'Dice' Tsutsumi and it's narrated by Lars Mikkelsen. The film tells the story of a future world of animals, that rely on a pig to constantly operate a large windmill dam; in order to keep dangerous pollution out. The pig is an outsider, who's constantly bullied by other animals at school. That changes when a new student comes to town; a friendly fox that befriends him. Things suddenly go really well for the pig, until he feels unexpectedly betrayed. The short is very dark and kind of frightening for kids; I know my eight-year old nephew thought it was pretty scary (but he also loved it). I could really relate to how harassed and somewhat alone the pig felt, due to the constant bullying. I think this is one of the stronger 2015 Oscar nominated animated shorts; because of it's relatability to kids. It's also really well made and bizarrely interesting!Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://youtu.be/D17O2xOoOCw