The Dam Keeper

2014

Animation / Drama / Family / Fantasy

8
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 90%
IMDb Rating 7.9/10 10 2638 2.6K

small town pig windmill short film

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Plot summary

In a desolate future, one small town has survived because of a large windmill dam that acts as a fan to keep out pollution. The dam's operator, Pig, works tirelessly to keep the sails spinning and protect the town, despite abuse from classmates and an indifferent public. When a new student joins Pig's class, nothing will be the same again.

Director

Daisuke 'Dice' Tsutsumi Photo
Daisuke 'Dice' Tsutsumi

Top cast

Lars Mikkelsen Photo
Lars Mikkelsen as Narrator
Courtney Lockwood Photo
Courtney Lockwood as Pig
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
167.2 MB
1280*694
English 2.0
TV-G
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
12 hr 18 min
Seeds 3
310.43 MB
1916*1040
English 2.0
TV-G
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
12 hr 18 min
Seeds 8

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Jacob B 10 / 10

It's a shame I don't pay attention to

It's a shame I don't pay attention to Best Animated Short Oscar contenders because the main reason I've even heard of this short is, once again, because of Pixar's Wikipedia navbox due to the directors being staff members there who decided to make this project after finishing work on Monsters University. Honestly, the real surprise is that this has a more detailed Wikipedia page than most of the articles dedicated to short films from the A-list animation studios. This short is also a notorious pain in the ass to track down online. Which is upsetting since this is a really good short. I actually wish this short won the Oscar instead of Feast, which was fine but wasn't my favourite Disney short, not being as good as the last two WDAS shorts. It has a distinctive visual style that's nice to look at that helps the simplistic character designs stand out more than if it were done in the established Disney/Pixar/DreamWorks style, the music is lovely, the two characters are likeable with their developing friendship being the most endearing attribute of this short and the story might not be the most complex but it does a good job going from sad to heartwarming. I can see why this studio is trying it's best to turn it into a franchise and I can understand why some people compared it to a Stephen King story if he were a more family-friendly author. See if you can track down this short or, if you're lucky, catch it on TV if some channel decides to air it; hell, build a time machine and journey back to a film festival from 2014, I don't care; and see why animation directors from the big leagues seem to really love this 18-minute story.
Reviewed by R T 10 / 10

Oscar nominated animated short and my personal favorite

Oscar nominated animated short and my personal favorite of this past Oscar competition. The play of light and shadow and the muted colors are just amazing. We're in a town of animals who dress like humans and talk. A little orphaned pig is left responsible for keeping a windmill working that keeps suffocating smog out of the village valley. The pig is an outsider who is bullied at school. Then a new kid, a little fox who likes to sketch and draw funny caricatures, befriends the friendless pig. After a misunderstanding, the pig is angry and betrayed and purposely fails to maintain the windmill. Everyone in town is at risk until the little pig realizes the mistake he made in jumping to a quick assumption and must heroically save the black sheeted valley. This heartfelt tale about bullying and friendship is something really special.
Reviewed by StevePulaski 9 / 10

The Dam Keeper is the richest, most plot-driven short of this year's animated batch of Oscar shorts. Captured in animation that resembles the illustrations of a storybook you grew up reading as a child, The Dam Keeper concerns a pig who controls the dam of his town. The dam's job is to block out the darkness from casting an ugly, dreary shadow onto the neighborhood, and the pig's now deceased father taught him the ways to fight off the darkness. At school, however, darkness hovers over the pig like a dark cloud, as he's bullied profusely, one day, befriending a fox who loves to sketch and shows him liberation through means of animation.It's as if the writing/directing of Robert Kondo and Daisuke Tsutsumi had past experiences with bullies as children and used animation as a tactic to set their mind free, making The Dam Keeper a short that could potentially bear a very heavy personal meaning. It also shows the way that while the physical darkness can be fought in this particular world that, like in the natural world, feelings of sadness and alienation unfortunately cannot, and through tender, affectionate writing and animation does The Dam Keeper helps us realize that, crafting a beautiful story and a wonderfully easy-on-the-eyes animation style.Directed by: Robert Kondo and Daisuke Tsutsumi.
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