War Is Over! Inspired By The Music Of John & Yoko

A curious choice for this year’s Best Animated Short Oscar shortlist, this quaint little story co-written by director Dave Mullins and Sean Lennon – John and Yoko’s son – uses modern animation techniques to tell a rather old fashioned story. One can see why it might have an emotive appeal, especially at the present time, but it feels rather underdeveloped compared to most of its competitors, more like an extended music video than a fully developed film in its right.

That’s not to say that it tracks along a single song. 11 minutes in length, it draws on fragments of several. Yoko Ono is an executive producer but her artistic influence is felt in this layered, concatenated approach, which adds a little depth to what is otherwise a simple narrative. In an imaginary, never-ending version of World War One, soldiers huddled in trenches use a pigeon to send chess moves across no man’s land, in the process forging a bond with their enemies which might lead to a recognition of shared humanity – if they don’t kill each other first.

There’s some very expressive characterisation in the chess players, the supporting characters and the pigeon, and this is the film’s best asset. Watching the plucky little bird in flight gives us a tour of the battlefield, and Mullins does as much as he can with the battered landscape, but he’s hampered by the fact that audiences will have seen all this before. There are no surprises and, of course, no reckoning with the decision-makers behind the scenes – just a fuzzy sentiment about brotherly love communicated through troubled eyes and hesitation. Despite an evident effort to tug at the heart-strings, it all feels rather empty.

An impressive calling card for the animators, this will nonetheless leave viewers wondering what exactly they have gained from the experience. It’s sweet but otherwise lacking in flavour.