Anna & Bella Review

Anna & Bella is a 1984 Dutch Oscar winning animated short film that is quite pleasant.

The film follows two older sisters who are now angels in heaven and they look at their old photos and reminisce about their young lives. This is a very good, surprisingly unique concept that is also executed quite well, if not great. The animation is very good with excellent character design though admittedly the movements are a bit too floaty for me.

The sisters should have been better developed, but they are still nice and charming and I loved their sweet, strong relationship. I also really liked the choice to not have dialogue in the movie as it fitted the visuals more. The main problem is the car crash sequence which features overly weird imagery which I did not love. But the rest was very good with the beginning and ending being particularly strong. The score is also terrific.

Anna & Bella is a worthy Oscar winner with strong animation, a great concept and some wonderful sequences.