#MovieReview: Wes Anderson returns to Roald Dahl with vigour
In late September, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Swan, The Ratcatcher, and Poison were all unveiled as bite-sized adaptations of Roald Dahl's tales.
A quartet of Wes Anderson short films recently landed without much fanfare on Netflix and offer a delightful window into his world of hyper-specific whimsy.
Released at the end of September, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Swan, The Ratcatcher and Poison are all bite-sized adaptations of Roald Dahl stories.
And if, like me, you were raised on Dahl’s writing, then this was nothing short of a perfect match.
Of course Anderson has adapted Dahl in the past, for the wonderful stop-motion feature The Fantastic Mr Fox, but the leanness and focus of the shorts are ideally suited to the author’s briefer output.
Henry Sugar runs longest at around 39 minutes, but all three others are in-and-out within 17 minutes – less than the length of most modern YouTube videos.
All four are staged to be viewed like theatre, with actors delivering lines directly into camera and sets visibly moving behind them rather than using typical cinema tricks.
It feels like the next stage of Anderson’s love of artifice, where there is always a layer or three hiding behind whichever medium he chooses.
This can admittedly be off-putting for those who don’t gel with his signature style, but it fits well with Dahl’s own clipped, slightly off-kilter writing.
These stories were written for children, but they all include an undercurrent of something deeper, revealing more adult themes or ideas.
And that fits Anderson’s output, which is always beautiful to look at, but does not shy away from human tragedy.
The three shortest films are particularly taut and will leave you wondering if you took a single breath during their runtime.
And that is what the short film genre – typically relegated to student productions and directors looking to make ‘calling card’ representations of their style – can offer when properly utilised.
It is seeing something of a revival at the moment, with European auteurs Pedro Almodovar and Yorgos Lanthimos also putting out shorts this year.
With the right subject matter, which warrants big screen production but could not withstand a full length runtime, shorts can be an ideal way for world class directors to produce more content.
If Anderson, or Almodovar and Lanthimos for that matter, want to make a short every year in between their features then we will all be better for it.
All rated PG for some adult themes and discussion of death.
3.5/5.
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