Kino London

Posted by Laura Shacham on Sunday, July 11th, 2010 at 7:00 pm.

My First Crush (2007) by Julia Pott.  Sound Design & Music by Christopher Frost

I remember my first crush, aged 5.  I couldn’t even write but I could understand that if he didn’t hold my hand at break-time, it wasn’t going to work out.  Incidentally he did hold my hand, and our love blossomed.  Until one day he asked me to marry him and I refused to speak to him anymore, as any self-respecting 6-year-old would.  I just wasn’t ready for the commitment.

Some of the stories here are funny, some are sad, and a couple have certainly outgrown the hopscotch court. But what Julia Pott’s film does so well is to capture that deeply endearing feeling which really does throw you straight back into the school playground – how it felt to be an enamoured kid.

In a similar vein to Nick Park’s Creature Comforts, the film takes the voices and stories of members of the public and gives them animal counterparts.  But don’t expect slick animated models and perfect lip synching. Loose line drawings and big letters skip across the frames.  It’s whimsical and playful; it’s childhood imagination flitting from one idea to another via the sweetshop.

This film is like squashed fly biscuits or sherbet fountains, a game of stuck-in-the-mud or neapolitan ice-cream – however jaded or grown-up you think you might be, you’ll find yourself smiling in recognition.

You can see more of Julia’s work here.  Anyone for a game of hide and seek?