The World of Astley Baker Davis is a retrospective of the work of
Mark Baker and Neville Astley – most famous as the creators behind ‘Peppa Pig’.
This series of six short animated films and one music video provides a
fantastic showcase for these two filmmakers.
Winning a BAFTA and nominated for
an Oscar, Mark Baker’s short from 1989, The
Hill Farm, is a humorous but increasingly dark examination of the place of
humanity in nature. The material is represented neutrally, initially seeming
like a cute cartoon about life on a farm with some cute and always hungry
animals until the film slowly takes a darker turn. Funny and beautiful but also
somewhat nasty – but thoroughly engrossing throughout.
Mark Baker followed this with
1993’s The Village, an even more edgy
cynical vision of a cloistered small town and the nosy and mean-spirited people
who live within it. The Kafkaesque story of greed, murder and mistaken identity
offers a melancholy view of a society so stagnant that a horde of ants are
constantly on call to devour any waste, human or otherwise.
While these two are not necessarily
recommended for kids, Baker and Astley’s next, Jolly Roger, is a much lighter
and funnier adventure yarn about marauding pirates and a maiden out for revenge
even if her protectors would rather she didn’t. Also lighter and very funny is
‘The Big Knights’, a very funny TV series co-created and directed by Baker and
Astley. Presented here is the episode ‘Lost Doris’ in which the two knights
lose their robotic hamster. They track it down while it eats the local
population into poverty. What marks these two features out is how funny,
fast-paced and inventive they are – each one throwing out enough good ideas and
jokes to stay on the right side of madcap.
The last two shorts comprise an
episode of ‘Peppa Pig’ called ‘Funfair’ and an episode of ‘Ben and Holly’s
Magic Kingdom’ called ‘Granny and Granpapa.’ Though obviously for very young
children, a good degree of the visual inventiveness and humour and a little of
the edge remains.
In summary, the whole collection
of shorts are highly enjoyable and the juxtaposition of darker films with
lighter, funnier works surprisingly well as a showcase of both their makers’
talents and their versatility. See it in particular for the fantastic ‘The Hill
Farm’ and ‘The Village.’
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