The Pearce Sisters (2007) User Reviews

Disturbing Stuff

[Theo Robertson · 7/10 · 11 March 2014]

Two lonely old spinsters live by the seashore and spend their days catching fish and making tea . One day they find a shipwrecked sailor washed up upon the shore and take him back to their shack

A BAFTA award winning animated short but if you think this is a family friendly cartoon be warned that it's anything but . The horror aspect is very well done but dare I say it's may be done a bit too well ? The imagery is grotesque and is keeping with the downbeat nihilistic feel of the story which often reminded me of John Hillcoat's film THE ROAD . I should point out that this animated film came out before the Hillcoat film but does feel like it exists in the same universe and timeline of that movie . That said the concept of two ladies living alone having an anti-social life threatening lifestyle isn't original and we've all heard of ARSENIC AND OLD LACE if not seen it for ourselves and while that film was genuinely amusing her everything is totally grim . It also manages to convey what's going on very well since there's about only one line of dialogue and is a good short despite the humour being a bit too black for a mainstream audience

Grotesque and macabre but somewhat endearing

[Rectangular_businessman · 8/10 · 31 October 2023]

A rather unusual short from Aardman, a very dark mixture of black comedy (And I mean really, really, dark and macabre. It's actually just one scene in particular, but it is quite nasty as another reviewer says) and horror.

The grotesque appearence of the characters somewhat reminded me of the Klasky-Cuspo animations, though with a more somber touch. I kinda liked it, despite how weird and ugly the characters looked.

There is something oddly endearing about these two sisters, despite all the grisly elements. Probably the art style influenced that impression on me, since if this had been done in live-action it would have been more disturbing and even nauseating.

The cartoonish aesthetic somehow softened the horror. But just a little bit.

A Bleak Tale of Loneliness and Tea

[ShortoftheWeek · 10/10 · 5 March 2008]

In the words of its makers, The Pearce Sisters—a short film based on the story by Mick Jackson and produced by Aardman Animations—is "a bleak hearted tale of love, loneliness, guts, gore, nudity, violence, smoking and cups of tea." And you know how well tea parties and loneliness mix. Enter the sisters, Lol and Edna Pearce.

Living "a miserable existence on a remote and austere strip of coast", the two old spinsters are eager to find company, with the complicity of the sea. Possibly male—handsome— grateful? Though they'd hardly win the heart of any living man, The Pearce Sisters won Best Short Animation at the 2008 BAFTA Awards.

Director Luis Cook has been at Aardman Animations since 1994, but this is his first (second, if you count the title sequence for the London Film Festival) non-commercial work. At a time when beauty often seems less exploratory, and more of a formula, it's refreshing to see a film dive into the aesthetics of ugliness. With every detail in every scene transporting us into this parallel universe born from Luis Cook's mind—a world both austere and humorous at the same time. As my friend Mike appropriately asked, "If the sisters had only gotten a bikini wax… would things have turned out different?"

One can only guess.

Read this and other online film reviews at www.ShortoftheWeek.com

cinanima 2007

[RResende · 9 November 2007]

i don't know whether i would be capable of "feeding" my visual imagination the whole time, every day, with animations like this. What i mean is, whenever we watch a film, any film, animated or not, we get into the world of its author (at least when the film is a bit interesting). But in "real image" films, that world is built from a number of elements the author picks from several places from the world of "reality" and those elements are bended to the author's specific vision and imagination. Two different directors given the same elements will necessarily produce two different works (the same way two architects with exactly the same constructive elements and program and place will produce two distinguishable buildings). This also applies to animation when its made over "serial" processes or when the visual conception include many creating people.

But when we have "authored" animation, like in this case, this whole question of "entering a new world" gains a whole new meaning, and we visit a whole new dimension. This is because everything is fully generated by someone's imagination which is, of course, rooted in real aspects and real elements, but every element comes twisted and bended to one specific interpretation (style?), and this submits those elements and everything that happens to new rules, new laws. That's at the same time the most fascinating/disturbing aspect of animation and the one which can keep me more distanced from it. That is because either you really get into the world, and enjoy being there (it can make you happy, upset, reflexive or purely angry, but it has to be a fascinating/seducing world) or it will be a bad time for you to be there, inside the core of the author. In this case, these morbid sea observing characters were an interesting world to check, but it makes me more tired to watch 9 minutes of this than a whole feature film made over real flesh and bone characters. I'm interested in trying to figure out why this happens. This film made me revive my relation to animation, at least in this level i referred.

My evaluation: 3/5 it may not cause you what it caused me, but it still has interesting elements.

http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com

Nasty....just nasty...and not in a good way

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 15 February 2008]

Visually speaking, this is a fascinating film. While I wouldn't say it was beautiful, it has an unusual look to the animation that make it stand out and is appropriate to the very grisly subject matter.

When it comes to the story itself, I am left wondering why--why would anyone make a nasty little film like this? The film is filled with so many ugly and repulsive elements I just wonder why anyone would find this funny, charming or interesting. It's about two weird green sisters who live by the seashore. At the beginning of the film, they are catching and gutting and then smoking fish. While not exactly interesting, the scenes are a bit gross--but not that bad. Then, they find some people who were washed ashore and what they do next just made my head hurt. They dressed one up like a lady and he freaked out when he awoke. But as for the next, here's where I just have to doubt the sanity of those who made the film. They smoke the guy into a mummy-like thing and then have a tea party with a whole bunch of corpses they treated the same way.

So what's the point? Sure, the film is rather nasty and yucky--but so what?! If it were funny, then it would all be a dark but amusing comedy. Without the humor, it just seems sick and mean-spirited.

I give the film a five simply because of the animation quality--the story was practically without merit. Oddly, BAFTA (like the British Oscars) gave this one an award. I just don't get it.