"Obituary: A Grave Beginning" is a 9-minute animated short film from summer 2016, so already over a year old. This one was written by the Barrytes and I wonder if they will ever make more of that: a story about a girl named June Crocker and not only is she living on a cemetery, but her "famila" are all the spirits of the deceased. She sees dead people. The title is somewhat fitting for this film because it really starts with very dark humor and a life-changing event for our protagonist in her younger years. But everything afterward, in the now, is much lighter and also a solid watch for younger audiences. It's somewhat fitting that there is no horror genre listed for this one here on IMDb as it's really all about the fun and comedy. It feels like a mix of Mean Girls and Hotel Transylvania. We don'd find out too much about the main character, but what we know about her families, her new foe (so Rachel McAdams in Mean Girls), her new friend (that looks like an older version of the Rugrats redhead) also somewhat defines her. I thought this was good. It is always difficult to tell from a film of under 10 minutes to what extent it would work as a series with each episode running for 20 minutes alone already, but the premise is decent and the way it looks I'd say they had in mind to follow up on it. I guess it just wasn't picked up yet. Maybe the humor was too light for them at times like the "weird" reference when one character says that she has been her age for decades etc. So yeah, this went strongly against the parents death scene early on. So if they maybe manage to define the show a bit if they want it to be for kids or for grown-ups, then it can be an enjoyable watch. Animation is okay, not good, but not bad either. This certainly deserves to be seen. I give it a thumbs-up.
2 Reviews
Not original
brichrihar10 August 2018
It's Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book. Swap up the characters a little, add a couple extra things like the ghosts being able to go out of the graveyard, and there you go. The main villain is a pair of school bullies. One of the secondary villains of the Graveyard Book is a pair of school bullies. The main character's parents are both dead in both as well. It was just animated and given voices.
The sad thing is that when I first saw this, I loved it. I wanted more. Then, about a year later, I read the Graveyard Book and looked back at this with disgust. I only gave it 2 stars thanks to the animation. I do NOT recommend it. Don't support unoriginal storytelling. Read the Graveyard Book. It's better anyways.
The sad thing is that when I first saw this, I loved it. I wanted more. Then, about a year later, I read the Graveyard Book and looked back at this with disgust. I only gave it 2 stars thanks to the animation. I do NOT recommend it. Don't support unoriginal storytelling. Read the Graveyard Book. It's better anyways.
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