Claymation stop-motion animator Alain Uhghetto looks back a couple or three generations in admiration, fondness & gratitude, from the turn-of-the-last century thru two World Wars & a bit beyond on a story cultivated from his own hardscrabble family. Immigrants in their own country who confronted work & political upheaval in Italy, especially with the rise of local fascism, then in France, where new roots are again shattered, now by the expanding war, with a household of characters constantly in flux, only Mama & Papa consistent figures. You can see why they went for big families back then as it wasn’t unusual to lose half the kids from war, accident or disease. Bewitchingly sad and lovely (funny, too!), often all at once, a heartfelt memory piece caught a couple of generations later and given an unusual artistic treatment that perhaps shouldn’t work, but does. With charming assistance from animator Ughetto who literally lends a hand as needed; his life-size paw entering the frame and touching your heart each time thru the simple difference in scale between him and his lifelike figurines. Add in some marvelous Tinker-Toy & model train effects to delight in spite (or is it because) of their simplicity and basic honesty and it’s impossible not to be moved. A big award-winner, deservedly so, the film went unreleased Stateside, but is worth digging around the internet to find.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Technically, if not in tone, the spirit of the animation is more Aardman (the WALLACE & GROMIT guys) than Laika/Selick.
CONTEST: The title translates as: NO DOGS OR ITALIANS. Like a sign in the States for a Boarding House that might have read NO Chinese (or Jews, or Blacks, or even Actors) at the time. Let’s come up with something better for a putative American release. THE UGHETTOS not too exciting. Maybe a catchy title (sent to our COMMENTS link) would get this picked up for distribution.
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