Rocks is one of the best animated films I've ever seen. It not only starts off with a clever idea, but it alternates between real time and geologic time so simply but so effectively that it is almost like it is alternating between two different worlds. It gives a great idea of the difference between geologic time and the time that we experience, as two rock piles talk to each other, complaining about another ice age like it's a rainy day.
The stop motion animation itself is indeed brilliant, but my favorite part is the picture that the movie paints about the path of human history. It shows us how fast we move in geologic time, illustrating the description of humans as a "flash in the pan" in the perspective of the history of the earth.
Take any geology class, and one of the first things you will learn is that, if all 4.6 or so billion years of the earth's life were condensed into a 24 hour period, humans came into existence something like 2 seconds before midnight, and this movie knows that.
The rocks are initially impressed with the development and industrialization that they see going on around them, the increase in productivity and efficiency, until suddenly it becomes a monster, growing and growing and towering over them, threatening their homes and their existence.
But before anything serious happens to them, the growth that they witnessed begins to decay and break down, and they watch apathetically as it collapses back into the earth from which it grew, becoming the rolling hills that it always was. It is a very pessimistic view of the future of the human race, but more than likely true.
What I really love about the film is that it can really make you look at the way you live your life without ever becoming preachy or, in a film that contains the end of humanity, political. This is truly a great film.
The stop motion animation itself is indeed brilliant, but my favorite part is the picture that the movie paints about the path of human history. It shows us how fast we move in geologic time, illustrating the description of humans as a "flash in the pan" in the perspective of the history of the earth.
Take any geology class, and one of the first things you will learn is that, if all 4.6 or so billion years of the earth's life were condensed into a 24 hour period, humans came into existence something like 2 seconds before midnight, and this movie knows that.
The rocks are initially impressed with the development and industrialization that they see going on around them, the increase in productivity and efficiency, until suddenly it becomes a monster, growing and growing and towering over them, threatening their homes and their existence.
But before anything serious happens to them, the growth that they witnessed begins to decay and break down, and they watch apathetically as it collapses back into the earth from which it grew, becoming the rolling hills that it always was. It is a very pessimistic view of the future of the human race, but more than likely true.
What I really love about the film is that it can really make you look at the way you live your life without ever becoming preachy or, in a film that contains the end of humanity, political. This is truly a great film.