"Animated cinema made at home"

Title: Selkirk, el verdadero Robinson Crusoe (Selkirk, the real Robinson Crusoe)
Year: 2011
Genre: Animation, Adventure
Director: Walter Tournier
Writer: Walter Tournier
Runtime: 80min
Produc.: Maíz Producciones, Patagonik, Cineanimadores, La Suma CineTV, Tournier Animation
Budget: $1,2 million approx.

Selkirk, the real Robinson Crusoe tells us the story of Alexander Selkirk, who joins Captain Bullock´s crew to embark toward the South Seas in the search of treasures. Finding no enemy threats in the way, the pirates entertain themselves by betting their money and Selkirk himself ends up being the lucky winner of each bet. Thus, no sooner they sight land and descend to stock up, Selkirk is abandoned as a revenge in the solitude of the island while the others take up with the journey.

After many decades filling the movie theaters of our country, either against films such as Peter Pan (1953), The Lion King (1994), Ratatouille (2007) or Puss in Boots (2011), now hits uruguayan theaters what is coming to be our debut in the category of animated feature film, and it could not have started in a worst way.

Walter Tournier, already known for his work on Los Tatitos, has been commissioned to write and direct this project, which I was able to inform myself about, would envolve an investment of something over $1 million dollars. As a curiosity, it is worth mentioning that Selkirk was not to be developed by the more traditional techniques, the hand drawing or the latest digital animation. In the case of this film it would be subject to the called stop motion animation or animation “frame by frame”, where puppets of 20 to 30 centimeters in height, of metallic internal structure and covered in silicon would be handled by different animators, a total of 10 and divided into two shifts, to obtain (based on the rule of 24 frames per second) an average of between 15 and 20 seconds of film per day.

With Selkirk, Tournier brings to the big screen a story inspired by Alexander Selkirk, real character whose circumstances later inspired the english Daniel Defoe to write his acclaimed novel Robinson Crusoe.

To analyze this film is important to be divided into two parts: on the one hand to what concerns to the animation, and the other, to its script. Regarding the first one, I can only say that the performance of all the team bore good fruit, as this production has nothing to envy to the U.S. animations of the same style, such as The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Jim and the Giant Peach (1996) and Corpse Bride (2005). As for the second point, it is due to a very bad scripted, that we must agree as to that the uruguayan animated cinema "has started on the wrong foot."

It turns out that Tournier's script is so very bad, as to probably leading many to want to leave the movie theater after 20 minutes. As we all know, today´s animated films are mainly characterized by its sense of humor that appeals to both children and adults, and the sad truth is that there are count with the fingers the jokes that we can see here. To make matters worse, the dialogue is so flat and lacking of spark that bores at all time, besides being one hundred percent explanatory.

Another quite significant flaw is in the handling of the scenarios, since is much more the time that is devoted to the adventures of Selkirk on the galleon, than what is given later, to the island. This is precisely where it should have been the strengh of the story, as it is the problem of this shipwrecked man that interested us all, and not his social life with the other pirates.

The narrative poverty is also recognizable in terms of the score, in which there is little to actually call "soundtrack", as there are only a couple of little songs with some rhymes, but lacking any possible appeal.

Further more, there was also an element which, by the end of the movie caught my attention. I mention this because it is not a detail that will reveal anything too important on the plot. This happens when, in the end Selkirk is rescued, boards a boat and says something like: "From now on I will not be anymore Selkirk, and I shall be called Robinson Crusoe." It's amazing and unfortunate that the director had made use of a phrase so graceless and fetched, to explain how his character changed his name, as well as completely unnecessary, as the story he invited us to see is the one about Selkirk, not Robinson Crusoe. In short, Selkirk is just a silly little tale without emotion or surprises.

My rating: 2/10

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