WATCH THE TRAILER HERE
First, the Recap:
To memorialize the ones we love is to hold on to every cherished recollection of them we can. The human bond is specifically unique to our universe and one that many would argue is made manifest and even more meaningful thanks to a higher power. Regardless of what you might choose to believe, there’s just no denying that once another person, especially when it comes to family, becomes that precious to us, to be separated and away from what we’ve known for so long can seem definitively isolating and lonely. When this is the case, how do we cope? For a granddaughter named Heba (voiced by Huda Abdul-Razzak) comes to visit her ill and beloved grandmother Bebe (voiced by Jeed Saddy), it occurs during a powerful rainstorm and subsequent flood around the hospital that becomes a metaphorical doorway to the past for Heba, the memories of an old tale, and her deeply valued time as a young girl (voiced by Israa Zainab) with Bebe that has meant the world to her.
Next, my Mind:
The imaginatively fantastical, a classic and ancient piece of poetic literature, and the stirring instances offered in the present all merge together to form the basis for this wonderfully accessible, Oscar qualifying six and half minute animated short film effort from writer/director/producer Huda Abdul-Razzak, co-director/animator My Anh Ngo, writer Toby Osborne, illustrator Kasia Doszla, plus animators Denise Anger de Medeiros and Ryen Goebel that delivers a conclusively feel-good but still mildly heartbreaking story that pulls together the notions of past and present and how it relates to those closest to us in a manner that will tug the strings of your soul and potentially be quite relatable in its message, as this critic knows it was for him. It speaks to what we treasure and the places we travel to get to those things, but then serves as a reminder of life, its eventualities, and why we should never forget where we come from.
Here, those latter concepts get thematically addressed through the eyes of a young girl visiting her admired and so strongly adored but now infirmed grandmother in the hospital during a raging, flood-inducing storm that causes the granddaughter to experience an adventure in memory both profound and wondrous, at times scary yet sacred even as the truths of an old tale permeate her mind along the way. My understanding is that the film was birthed out of the director’s own relationship with her grandmother, and so therefore carries a more than tangible meaning for her in making this film. The additional notions of unfeigned love, childhood innocence, the bonds of family, being away from our true home, the idea of the eternal/divine (here represented by the ocean and the associated excerpt from Rumi’s “Masnavi” that tells of a duck raised by chickens!), and I feel the acceptance of loss, even if not yet experienced.
Once I researched and did a little more pondering about this film, it echoed within my own mind and soul a lot more, as this past Summer saw the loss of both a best friend and my father. While the pain and actuality of these losses still very much resides inside me, I watch a film like this one and it helps me to take every possible moment to remember all the best things about those relationships, how they helped me grow, learn, and perhaps even find means to be like ocean duck and go back to where I feel revived and whole, even if it’s more proverbial in practice/action than that of the duck who had forgotten what it was to BE home in the water rather than on land in the chicken coop where he was raised. Any way you choose to look at it, there’s a connection to others and to ourselves that we can gain from the narrative this film provides, and a necessary promoting to ensure we do press into what’s most important in this life and maintain the closeness to those dearest to us while they’re here, for so often they ARE our foundation and joy.
From the visual standpoint, there’s something to be said for being able to view, admire, and hence genuinely appreciate the sheer creativity and colorful artistry of illustrated animation work again, more so in this modern age of high quality, undoubtedly eye-popping, photorealistic CGI that dominates cineplexes across the world (Ok…YES…I am SO pining to SEE “Avatar: The Way of Water” for this precise reason!). Somehow, though, there’s just something that, for me, really does go beyond words to adequately describe the skills it takes to render what so many might attempt to write off as “plain” with this film’s look, but folks, THIS IS ART, actual drawn and painted ART. Even if the movement piece of it all might be computer-based, it doesn’t take away from the talent and purposeful labor it takes to do this style of animation, much less that it IS the “simplicity” of its ultimately lush visual presentation that for me MAKES it the enjoyable and–warming–element to accompany, even enhance this narrative. Beautiful work through and through.
Voiceover work is carried out for the film’s three primary characters via the director herself giving life to the adult Heba, Saddy as Heba’s doting and now ill but still aware and lovingly appreciative grandmother Bebe, and Zainab as the younger version of Heba. All give solid performances and do effectively imbue their animated counterparts with the necessary emotion that conveys the story’s objectives with poignancy. And so, in total, “The Ocean Duck” is perfectly relatable, straightforward, engaging, endearingly charming storytelling at its roots with equally proficient imagery created to accompany it. It’s a film that is nice to just sit back and absorb, tasking from it the faith, encouragement, inward challenge to rediscover yourself, and the motivation to ensure you spend time with those who truly mean something to you so that we might, just like the ocean duck itself, always manage to find our way home.
As always, this is all for your consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
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