We only occasionally review shorts here at Dread Central, but there are some filmmakers that we feel so passionately about that we are compelled to make an exception. Robert Morgan is one such director, and his latest film, Bobby Yeah, is a stop-motion extravaganza four years in the making that should be sought out if you get the chance.
If you’re unfamiliar with Morgan’s work, check out my prior review of Fantasia’s 2006 program Worlds of Wounded Clay, and hurry over to Animus Films, where you can watch some of his earlier short films. Finally, the trailer for Bobby Yeah can be seen here.
Interested yet? Like many experimental stop-motion films (think Jan Svankmajer or The Brothers Quay), Bobby Yeah is devoid of dialogue and is more nightmarish than narrative, but for those of you that often feel animation lacks the emotional connection of live action filmmaking, you should know that Morgan’s particular talent is imbuing his fleshy, Hieronymous Bosch inspired puppets with a humanity that is disconcerting despite their wholly foreign appearance.
Technically speaking, Bobby Yeah displays an evolution of Morgan’s talents. His puppets are now incredibly realistic, intentionally malformed as they may be. The effect adds to the overall icky tone, and while grossing the audience out is clearly not the primary goal, there is real horror in all the sweaty, slick, sexually suggestive creatures with their protruding hair and bits of toenail.
Clearly there’s a barely concealed metaphor in here relating to curiosity, self-destructive tendencies, bodily decay, and rebirth, themes Morgan has tackled to greater and lesser degrees in all his films. While the particularly obsessive nature of the films is a large part of their appeal, one can’t help but wish that Morgan would be afforded the chance to branch out a little more to better expose his particular world view to a larger audience. He’s proven he’s as adept at live action as he is at stop-motion through 2004’s Monsters, and it’s always been disappointing that he’s never had the chance to make a feature length film. The tagline of Bobby Yeah is “I done a bad thing”; now if someone would just give Morgan some money, maybe he could do a big thing as well.
4 out of 5