Fire in Cardboard City is a 2017 stop motion animated short by New Zealander Phil Brough. This short has won numerous awards and has been invited to screen at top film festivals, and for good reason. It’s unique in concept, well executed, and so, so, funny!
I have long been a big fan of Nick Parks and other claymation artists, but Phil Brough gives us a new twist on stop motion art by using cardboard as his medium. It’s hard to imagine the work that went into the construction of the elaborate city scenes, vehicles and characters, even before the labor-intensive film production work could begin. The decision to use cardboard is obvious based on the title, but how he transforms a 2D material into 3D action is astounding.
The film uses modern film cinematics to great effect, with zooming and panning, extreme angles and forced perspective to enhance mood. I wonder if there was a sort of rotoscoping going on to create, in cardboard, the action in the car scenes including roll over crashes. There’s almost a sense that the creators are making a parody of typical Hollywood car crash scenes and disaster movies.
The sound editing is perfectly set up to give life to the cardboard world. Not only do sounds like helicopter rotors, roaring fire, and screeching tires make Cardboard City seem real, there’s a well-done music overlay to ramp up the emotion. In addition, the fire effects are just so spot on. In the scene of the skyscraper burning, the flames reach out individual windows, with plenty of smokes, sparks, and occasional explosions to get the full experience of the disaster.
The sort of child-like execution of the art almost hides the sophistication of the animation and production technique. But this juxtaposition of the seemingly crude art and the clever use of it to tell the story makes it all the more humorous. It’s particularly appropriate, when (spoiler alert) the film breaks the fourth wall. While the film is extraordinarily amazing as a piece of animation, what makes it perhaps most compelling is that the story is beyond funny, in concept and in innumerable little details, like this one:
“Jim’s stupid bombs and fireworks shop” is one of many little reminders showing how ridiculous it is to live in such a highly combustible city. The hapless inhabitants do their cardboard best to deal with the horror, but they are sadly at the mercy of wicked Phil Brough and the other Kiwis on his team.
