Prologue (2015) User Reviews

The horror of war is in store

[StevePulaski · 7/10 · 24 February 2016]

Richard Williams' Prologue is a decidedly emptier short film in terms of plot, as its eight minutes showcase very elaborate and detailed sketches of warfare that are uncommonly violent and brutal, especially by the standards of animation. The battle takes place between Spartan and Athenian warriors, who find new and riveting ways to pierce the exposed fleshes of their enemies all while trying to win the war despite losing everything.

You can tell how little the short is about given my dramatic plot reiteration. As a whole, while there isn't much going on with Prologue, it's a strangely immersive short film. Its largely blank canvas, only decorated with simple pencil strokes of gray, black, and red that realize the ugliness of battle, strangely helps one get sucked into the world before being spit back out when the credits roll. On top of that, the violence here is immaculately conceptualized and the overall effect is strangely satisfying, almost servicing one's questionably human, carnal desires to see violence by way of such an innocent medium. If nothing else, use it as a cautionary tale for the horror of war.

The nagative reviews are the proof of how much in denail modern humans are.

[johnxolidis · 8/10 · 3 September 2018]

The animation was exellent, I give it a 8 stars because as a person who is into historical reenacment I found some pieces historically innacurate with the way figures fought and were equipt but this can be forgiven because this animation shows 4 skirmishers not hoplites. The negative reviews I have seen so far are a testiment to human deniel and misinformation/lack of infomation. The animation has a story, it's the Peloponissian war, a war that happened not a fantastic event that most of your might think. It potrays perfectly the gruesomeness of such combat instead of making it look like a hero movie like most pieces of modern cinema do. For all those who review this movie negatively and actaully think what they are waching is just two guys killing each other for just cause then you have nothing more to do but to simply open a history book to realise this doesn't just have a story but it's a recreation of a real moment in human history.

Prologue

[negatively-positive-girl · 7/10 · 21 December 2017]

Short, yet great animation. A message about what violence we teach our children, how only humans have war on their own species since the beginning of time.

Striking Richard Williams toon.

[Mozjoukine · 9 November 2015]

Impressive non verbal cartoon of high seriousness. No Pink Panthers here. It's also a long trip from Williams' The LITTLE ISLAND or the disaster of The PRINCESS & THE COBBLER.

Spending years doing one frame one drawing on paper, before state of the art modification, to achieve a striking, exceptionally fluid style, this one is a break from what we've seen from Williams.

The labor of love short film uses the Spartan-Athenian conflict for it's imagery.

We see aggression and its consequences in a sometimes startling manifestation.

My least favorite, of this year's Academy Award nominated animated shorts.

[Hellmant · 7/10 · 4 February 2016]

'PROLOGUE': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

A 6 minute British animated short film; about a gruesome battle, between Spartan and Athenian warriors (2,400 years ago), as seen through the eyes of a young girl. The short is extremely violent, and it also contains full frontal (animated) male nudity. It was directed, and animated, by Richard Williams; and it was produced by Imogen Sutton (Williams' wife). The battle scene is really well done; brilliantly animated and very realistic looking. There's not a lot to the movie, other than that though; a little girl sees it, and she's heartbroken by it. The animation is extremely impressive; but it's my least favorite, of this year's Academy Award nominated animated shorts.

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Prologue was the last work of the late Richard Williams

[tavm · 10/10 · 18 August 2019]

Just found this, what I found out was the late Richard Williams' final film, on Facebook. It begins with a bug going out one flower to another and then segues to a bunch of men-one completely naked, one with some armor-fighting with swords and a few other weapons. I'll stop there and just say this was quite excellent in the way the figures seem life-like with great action and drama to spare. R.I.P. Mr. Williams

No matter what this film might have meant or it's Oscar nomination, I thoroughly hated it.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 6 February 2016]

This was a very unusual nominee at the screening because it was shown last (after the commended shorts) and carried a lengthy warning that children should not stay in the theater to see it. After seeing "Prologue", I completely understand and it is not appropriate for children. However, I also think it's not appropriate to be seen by anyone!

The film is gorgeously animated using pencils and a bit of colored pencil. I loved this style of animation and the film was beautiful...yet I give it a D rating. This is because there is almost no story at all and the film was just god-awful and joyless.

It consists of four people fighting some sort of itsy-bitsy war in ancient times. Like some of these ancient warriors, two of them were naked, but their genitalia didn't offend me. After all, that is how some of them most likely fought. What bothered me was that there really wasn't any story...just four guys viciously killing each other...very viciously. There is blood galore as well as a lovely scene near the end when one of them stabs the other to death by plunging a sword into the other guy's testicles! Or was it his anus...either way, it was just incredibly nasty and gross...and seemingly pointless.

UPDATE: The Oscar went to "Bear Story".

A magnificent prologue

[Rectangular_businessman · 10/10 · 27 August 2016]

An impressive short by Richard Williams (Director of the 1971 animated short version of "A Christmas Carol" and "The Thief and the Cobbler")

Visually speaking, "Prologue" is simply breathtaking, having some of the most gorgeous animation I have seen in the recent years, with an outstanding level of realism and intensity.

Even when some viewers could see this as an exercise of "style over substance", the style in question is so wonderfully done that it is more than enough to justify its viewing.

A short like this couldn't be done with CGI. It simply wouldn't be the same, and certainly, it wouldn't have the same artistic merit.

"Prologue" deserved a better reception, in my opinion. I guess the violent and overall dark tone of the plot (This isn't a lighthearted, "feel-good" short like the ones made by Disney or Pixar) in't exactly everyone's cup of tea, but I will never be able to understand why this only has a 6.3 score on IMDb while a completely unremarkable short like "Kiwi!" has 8.2.

I would not have nominated it

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 15 March 2016]

"Prologue" is a British 6-minute animated short film from last year that managed to get nominated at both the BAFTAs and Oscars this year without winning either. I must say the nomination was already a bit much. I guess they just wanted to pay tribute to Richard Williams this way, a man who has worked in the industry for many decades and already won 2 Oscars (2.5 actually) in the past. However, his film did nothing for me. I don't mind violence if it feels that it helps in telling a convincing story, but this was a fairly boring watch I must say. The animation style was so-so and looked a lot older than 21st century. I am a bit glad this film did not win and even if I was not rooting for "Bear Story", then this one was still a more deserving winner than "Prologue". I do not recommend the latter. Thumbs down.

Brilliant Animation Method

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 29 October 2021]

War is hell and it always has been. I think that sometimes when animation is used, it is thought to be cartoon-like in the kindest sense. So when the realities of face to face battle are portrayed we seem to believe that we've somehow been betrayed by the filmmaker. There are no winners here, only the slaughter of our opponents and the end is meaningless. The face of he child and the old woman, wonderfully portrayed, are what should be etched in our memories. There is nothing clean about war and this shows it in spades.

Great animation, but the story...

[Wizard-8 · 15 May 2016]

I have long had an interest in the works of animation wizard Richard Williams, even though I will freely admit that a number of his efforts don't work (such as the movie "Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure"). When I learned of "Prologue", and hearing it was nominated for an Oscar, I went to YouTube to give it a look.

After watching it, I am not sure why it was nominated for an Oscar. To be sure, the animation is GREAT. It's accomplished in an old fashioned hand-drawn pencil style, which I found very attractive. Clearly a lot of work was done to accomplish the animation.

However, the story is lacking... to put it kindly. The plot can be more or less summed up as the following: Four ancient warriors hack each other to death - the end.

I simply didn't see the point of this short film. Maybe it shows how hand drawn animation can look gorgeous even in this age of computer animation, but I think an animated short should do more, like tell a story or even just to make us laugh. In the end, I can only recommend this short to true animation aficionados, and even they might find it largely pointless.

Amazing animation, horrible story!!

[drbarbc-526-517466 · 3/10 · 9 February 2016]

First of all, anyone who watches this can easily see why parents were advised to remove their children from the theater before it was presented.

The animation is -- STUNNINGLY Beautiful! I can see why another reviewer mistook the story as an tiny war, but I felt it was depicting Athens/Sparta.

The story is pointlessly grim and violent. As an aside, I doubt any man would find it comfortable to fight without at least underwear, if not shorts on. The dangling genitalia was unnecessary to the story, I cannot see one reason it was done.

What is it supposed to be? Is it supposed to speak to the violence and loss of war? Is that something our world doesn't understand, hence a need to waste the (considerable) effort of the artist on? No.

The entire time I was watching it I was frustrated by the wasted talent. He should find a new writer give him a story worthy of his work.

This animated short film is bloody and mature for a detailed cartoon and not for kids.

[crosswalkx · 3/10 · 18 August 2019]

I have watched this cartoon short on youtube and it upset me very much, I didn't like how graphic, bloody, violent and mature Richard Williams made this cartoon which would be his last cartoon. I don't know why he did make this cartoon short. I didn't like the part where the men where naked showing off their private parts or where they were stabbed, shot at in a bloody way.

I was very impressed with the detailed animation of the realistic looking bumblebee and butterfly. But after that it gets suddenly rated R violent like Mortal Kombat. I can't believe Richard Williams would make a cartoon like Happy Tree Friends, Family Guy, South Park, or Fritz the Cat.

Roger Rabbit didn't have any blood though it's my least favorite cartoon or the Thief and the Cobbler which was much tamer on a PG rated level.

If you want to see a family friendly cartoon by Richard Williams, I suggest you watch the Thief and the Cobbler, or A Christmas Carol, I wouldn't recommend watching the PG-13 rated Roger Rabbit movie as I was uncomfortable with certain parts. But skip watching this rated R cartoon, I was upset with the graphic violence, I'm surprised the youtube company didn't put an age lock down sign in requirements on the mature bloody videos.

Completely false portrayal of classical age Greek fighting.

[random-70778 · 3 March 2019]

This laughably inaccurate short was to be the introduction to a cartoon adaption of Lysistrata. The press material says: "Man against man and sword against spear, the soldiers are determined to sacrifice themselves for a greater purpose"

"man against man"? Classical age conflict between Greek city states was NOT melee pairing it was phalanx warfare. That is almost ritualized and surprising low violence, with an estimated 5% casualty rate per battle. Violence was almost entirely confined to combatants and phalanx fighting was essentially set piece pushing matches. There was virtually no "man against man" fighting at all.

That the cartoons was utterly inaccurate in detail as well is also important since the the details go to bigger issues. The greaves ALL hoplites wore and the type of shield (the word hoplite means shield warrior), and the standard length spear ALL had were for fighting in FORMATION. And the formation (the phalanx) reflected the citizen warrior fighting in a unified group -- as part of their responsibility to their city state and their fellow citizen warriors. Breaking off for melee pairings as in "Prologue" as it itself an act against one's fellow citizens since it compromised the phalanx.

Each citizen had to privately own the infantry arms and amour. This was an important part of egalitarian underpinnings of most city states.

The reason the Eight to Fifth century BC city states did not subjugate huge amounts of foreigners is because their fighting method, citizen, non professional solders who had their own equipment. Assyrians, Persians, later Macedonian Greeks, and empire period Romans all had armies were paid or impressed soldiers, who did not own their weapons and who were permanent professional soldiers. those other forces did NOT have to get back to the fields or regular jobs" like Lysistrata era Greeks had to.

The cartoonist completely misses the point: If warfare today was like classical age Greek warfare, with its lack of full time professional soldiers, with its lack of central armories, but instead owned arms, with its "winning" by having 5% or so of combatants die on the field, and victory declared, instead of "total war" with its lack of razing cities in most cases -- we would be a LOT better off.

The author/cartoonist, and anyone interested, ought to read the preeminent scholar on Lysistrata era Hoplite warfare: Victor Davis Hanson's "Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience" so they do not get confused.

Battle to the Death

[Michael_Elliott · 26 February 2016]

Prologue (2015)

*** (out of 4)

Richard Williams bizarre animated short managed to pick up an Oscar nomination and it's somewhat hard to believe considering how violent and gory the picture is. The film takes place over two thousand years ago as Spartan and Athenian fighters do battle to the death.

It seems that reviews are rather mixed on this one and it's easy to see why. The film contains some full frontal nudity, graphic violence and some gore, which will certainly have your eyes wide open but at the same time I guess this might be too much for some even in an animated form. For the most part I thought the six minutes went by fast and I'd argue that the animation itself was quite good. There's really no story to speak of but just violent battle sequences with blood flowing.