Hello and welcome back to Classic Shorts Showcase. Today, I'll be taking a look at Father Noah's Ark, which is a loose adaption and perhaps too safe adaption of the tale of Noah's Ark. Did I like it? Well, it's hard to say.
The Plot
The plot here is bare bones. While the story of Noah is timeless and well known, there is nothing to make this short stand out. Also while this tale may be classic, let's assume for one second that someone who may have never heard the tale of Noah watches this short, they may have a basic understanding of what is going on but this short doesn't do enough to not only make the story memorable and it also doesn't do enough to be it's own. thing. I wouldn't call this short bad but rather safe and that's almost worse in my opinion.
Characters
The characters again in this short aren't memorable. I don't know if I'd even say there were any comedic moments. Rather they just felt stock and had no distinguishing personalities. So instead of my usual breakdown, I'll just talk about them all here. It almost felt as though the people behind this short didn't know what to do with the characters. Sure, there was Noah who was supposed to be the main character but that didn't come across and then there are his sons and their wives who do practically nothing. I mean c'mon, you even say that they were on the ark for 40 days and 40 nights and your telling me that you can't show me something exciting. Instead all we get is prayer. How exciting? Not! Also going back to Noah, there was a joke that I had a problem with. Okay, so when Noah and sons are loading up the ark there are two skunks that come along but as soon as Noah and his sons see them, they pull the plank in. Yes, I get the joke but that goes against the story as Noah gathered two of every animal. He didn't leave them behind and oh as for the skunks, they made it onto the ark eventually. I assume that they had to swim to catch up to it. Another big disappointment I have is in the beginning is that Mother Noah uses the line of I wear the pants in this family but in the entire short, we never see anything that proves that to be true. Don't use that line, if you don't have anyway of showing that is true of the character. Again, it was probably another joke but still, no. And after that Mother Noah practically disappeared. No, she didn't jump ship (I would of). Instead, all we ever see do is knit. To be fair to the short, this came out in '33 and the animation does show that as the characters have not aged well. It's funny Father Noah looks like Santa. Also seeing this as based on a religious tale, why couldn't we have seen God testing Noah's strength. I mean, a great way to have told this tale in my opinion would've been showing the hardships that Noah faced. Maybe all the animals didn't make it or maybe he lost one of his sons or one of their wives along the way. There was nothing at stake here and that is perhaps the biggest issue. With these characters having nothing at stake, how am I suppose to care about what happens to them? Instead, no the only reference we get to God is when Noah says My Lord. I can honestly say that this short did...
My Final Thoughts
This is not a short I reccomend as it is too safe, it doesn't do anything to make the story engaging. The characters do nothing after they get on the ark other than pray. It's a case of I can't hate the characters because there isn't anything to like or hate about them. I mean c'mon 40 days and 40 nights, I'm sure there was work that was done on the ark, couldn't we have seen the characters work to protect the ark from the danger of the elements and the skunk joke is a point of contention for me. Honestly folks if you want to see this story told well, I suggest you check out Pomp and Circumstance from Fantasia 2000
Join me next week as we aren't done with Noah just yet as I take a look at the 1959 stop motion short, Noah's Ark (please be good!)
The Plot
The plot here is bare bones. While the story of Noah is timeless and well known, there is nothing to make this short stand out. Also while this tale may be classic, let's assume for one second that someone who may have never heard the tale of Noah watches this short, they may have a basic understanding of what is going on but this short doesn't do enough to not only make the story memorable and it also doesn't do enough to be it's own. thing. I wouldn't call this short bad but rather safe and that's almost worse in my opinion.
Characters
The characters again in this short aren't memorable. I don't know if I'd even say there were any comedic moments. Rather they just felt stock and had no distinguishing personalities. So instead of my usual breakdown, I'll just talk about them all here. It almost felt as though the people behind this short didn't know what to do with the characters. Sure, there was Noah who was supposed to be the main character but that didn't come across and then there are his sons and their wives who do practically nothing. I mean c'mon, you even say that they were on the ark for 40 days and 40 nights and your telling me that you can't show me something exciting. Instead all we get is prayer. How exciting? Not! Also going back to Noah, there was a joke that I had a problem with. Okay, so when Noah and sons are loading up the ark there are two skunks that come along but as soon as Noah and his sons see them, they pull the plank in. Yes, I get the joke but that goes against the story as Noah gathered two of every animal. He didn't leave them behind and oh as for the skunks, they made it onto the ark eventually. I assume that they had to swim to catch up to it. Another big disappointment I have is in the beginning is that Mother Noah uses the line of I wear the pants in this family but in the entire short, we never see anything that proves that to be true. Don't use that line, if you don't have anyway of showing that is true of the character. Again, it was probably another joke but still, no. And after that Mother Noah practically disappeared. No, she didn't jump ship (I would of). Instead, all we ever see do is knit. To be fair to the short, this came out in '33 and the animation does show that as the characters have not aged well. It's funny Father Noah looks like Santa. Also seeing this as based on a religious tale, why couldn't we have seen God testing Noah's strength. I mean, a great way to have told this tale in my opinion would've been showing the hardships that Noah faced. Maybe all the animals didn't make it or maybe he lost one of his sons or one of their wives along the way. There was nothing at stake here and that is perhaps the biggest issue. With these characters having nothing at stake, how am I suppose to care about what happens to them? Instead, no the only reference we get to God is when Noah says My Lord. I can honestly say that this short did...
My Final Thoughts
This is not a short I reccomend as it is too safe, it doesn't do anything to make the story engaging. The characters do nothing after they get on the ark other than pray. It's a case of I can't hate the characters because there isn't anything to like or hate about them. I mean c'mon 40 days and 40 nights, I'm sure there was work that was done on the ark, couldn't we have seen the characters work to protect the ark from the danger of the elements and the skunk joke is a point of contention for me. Honestly folks if you want to see this story told well, I suggest you check out Pomp and Circumstance from Fantasia 2000
Join me next week as we aren't done with Noah just yet as I take a look at the 1959 stop motion short, Noah's Ark (please be good!)
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