Everyone knows that the stork delivers babies, but where do the storks get the babies from? The answer lies up in the stratosphere, where cloud people sculpt babies from clouds and bring them to li...
Partly Cloudy casts a cutesy yet cumbersomely animated tale of cumulus proportions. Ever wondered where babies come from? Biology would suggest parts of the male and female anatomy, which shan’t be divulged in this review (let’s keep it PG...). But, would you believe it if the clouds themselves produced infants? Moulding shapes of fluff, injecting a minuscule amount of lightning to create life and then command storks to deliver them to every house in the neighbourhood? Not just human babies, puppies and kittens also. It’s a menagerie of fauna, high up in the sky.
Sohn’s CGI short depicts Gus, a thunderstorm cloud, whom can only create “dangerous” creatures. Crocodiles, sharks and electric eels to name a few. The assigned stork, scarred from all the dangers they have encountered, reluctantly flies away. Gus is now saddened by his departure, producing torrential downpour and strikes of lightning. Essentially homing in on the moral of “it’s absolutely fine to be different, and no one should reject you for your inability to create wonderful things...”. Extraordinarily cute, yet clumsily animated.
The character models of infant creatures and environmental structures were rendered with minimal textures, making almost every asset look flat. Aside from the anthropomorphic clouds and storks, which were designed intricately, the rest looked pre-Ratatouille Pixar, a noticeable sight considering the quality of previous shorts. The elongated focus on cartoonish humour, as opposed to the sadness and anger Gus experiences being a thundercloud and all, diminished the short’s message somewhat. It felt like a simple, pleasing route to proceed with, asserting minimal narrative creativity in the process. The actual weather itself, consisting of a gorgeous sunset, provided sufficient lighting and an idyllic environment backdrop that attracted the eyes.
Fortunately Giacchino’s whimsical score kept these clouds fluffy and picturesque, as the repetitious and slapstick humour was unable to control the weathering message. Watchable, yet forgettable.
