Bricks in Motion
We are a friendly filmmaking community devoted to the art of stop-motion animation using LEGO® and similar construction toys. Here, you can share your work, join our community of other brickfilmers, and participate in periodic animation contests!
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Lego Mother's Day
This is my YT channels first Brickfilm. It was a learning curve making this to say the least. Much respect to all brickfilmers.
It looks like you forgot to link to the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny8LWQ0-tGA
Overall, this is a very fun little short. For the most part, the animation is executed well. There are some noticeable LEGO piece bumps, such as the flowers moving, but it can often be difficult to animate in tight places. So that's not a huge issue at all. My favorite aspect of this film is the set design. The kitchen set is homey and I like the colorful design of the grocery store.
The story is simple but told in a fun and creative way. One thing that felt a little out of place, though, was the introduction of the father character. Perhaps it would have felt more natural, so to speak, if the father had been introduced earlier in the story as the mother and children were.
The animation was decent, though a higher fps in the edit might have helped, and there was a bit of set bump/camera shake, but overall this was a very enjoyable brickfilm. Your sets were simple but effective (stuff like the school, and the aerial shot of the roads worked very nicely).
I did think the use of the licensed characters was very creative too, when the irritated mum turns into the Hulk.
The voice acting could do with some work, but the whole thing was quite endearing so it didn't detract from the brickfilm.
My only major criticism is that I find the brickfilm's view of motherhood kind of skewed and, particularly at the end, kind of uncomfortable. It feels a bit patronising towards mothers:
Do the shopping, take the kids to school, run errands etc and your reward is that you'll be bought dinner on Mother's Day. It feels like a Meghan Trainor song.
Maybe I'm being fussy, but that's just a thing to watch out for in the future. I know we all have our own ideas about family life and gender roles, so while I don't agree with the film's message, I didn't let this this point bring down my overall score for your brickfilm, which is 4 out of 5 bricks. A solid, fun piece of work. Keep it up!
A nice little film here. I agree the the voicing and animation was a bit rough, but it doesn't detract too much. I did quite like the sets and cinematography (particularly the aerial shot). Also, you seem to be recycling a good amount of the footage, which gets a bit repetitive and slows the pacing somewhat, but again, it's not too bad. There are a few flaws, but for a first Brickfilm it's highly impressive. Good work!
My only major criticism is that I find the brickfilm's view of motherhood kind of skewed and, particularly at the end, kind of uncomfortable. It feels a bit patronising towards mothers:
Spoiler (click to read)
Do the shopping, take the kids to school, run errands etc and your reward is that you'll be bought dinner on Mother's Day. It feels like a Meghan Trainor song.
Maybe I'm being fussy, but that's just a thing to watch out for in the future. I know we all have our own ideas about family life and gender roles, so while I don't agree with the film's message, I didn't let this this point bring down my overall score for your brickfilm, which is 4 out of 5 bricks. A solid, fun piece of work. Keep it up!
Eh, while this film does perhaps come across as being a bit simplistic to adult viewers (which is not necessarily a bad thing), I have to disagree. There's nothing here to suggest that the mother is a stay-at-home-mom or doesn't have a successful career or is somehow unhappy or oppressed. It would be problematic if this film was saying that women in general should be like this, but this is specifically about being a mother. Raising kids is hard work, and any half-decent mother (and father) will have to end up doing a lot of what is shown in the video. This is particularly relevant from a child's perspective (and I'd saything this film is from the perspective of a child, or early teenager perhaps), as they don't generally see the more "grown-up" side of their parents until they're older. Regardless of whether a woman is a stay-at-home-mom or working mother with a high-flying career, somebody still has to tuck in the children and do the grocery shopping. And honestly, it's pretty reductionist and mercenary to view a Mother's Day dinner as if it's a somehow inadequate and condescending consolation prize for having kids instead of being a strong independent woman or whatever. The way I see it, it's the family's way of saying "thank you" for all the things the mother (again, mother, not woman) has done for them.
(Also, I'm not sure what Meghan Trainor has to do with anything here.)
Last edited by Mr Vertigo (May 10, 2015 (09:20am))
All good points, Vertigo, I was just saying that's how I came from it feeling. I did also specify that 'mother' several times rather than 'woman', but hey, it's just my opinion. If I'm honest, it's really only the ending that made me feel this way, though on closer inspection I guess you're right (though the brickfilm doesn't suggest to the contrary that she's a stay-at-home mother, but I digress).
The reason I mentioned Meghan Trainor was because of a song she released recently which has caused a bit of a stir called Dear Future Husband, which many (including Trainor herself, I believe) have cited as anti-feminist. While I don't have any strong opinions on it, the song basically says "I'll clean the house and be a good wife as long as you get me flowers".
But like I also said, this didn't detract from what was an enjoyable brickfilm, one I gave 4 bricks. This was a minor note; it didn't sour my opinion of the work as a whole.
Thank you all for your encouragement, criticisms and advice.
I did fear it may be viewed as pushing a 'women should be in the home' agenda but it is really just supposed to be a child's view of their mother. I left a few household tasks undone so you could see it that the father does those. I just wanted to focus on the mother though as it is on the theme of mother's day.
There will be strong, independent and even heroic female characters in our next project (and hopefully a female voice actor 
), this was already planned before now.
That was nice! I enjoyed the story, and how the mom has to go through the same exact thing every day. It's very true to life 
I also like your set building, the colors were good, and the designs were great (like on the school). While there were some animation issues, I didn't find them to be that bad. Keep up the good work!
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