La Maison en Petits Cubes (2008) (2025)

Popular reviews

• Review by nanci ★★★★½

  It was my tears that flooded his village.

• Review by Robert Beksinski ★★★★½ 1

  One of the most beautiful and touching short films I have seen. A story told in such simplicity but also soul searchingly deep as the water that submerges the life around the lonely old man. Gorgeous and stunning animation that creates a world drowned by memories and a longing for the past. This film touches me deep inside. 9/10.

• Review by Edgar Cochran ✝️ ★★★★★ 5

  This reminded me of a famous sequence of Angelopoulos' The Weeping Meadow (2004), but prolonged to become a minimalist essay that has the poetic strokes of France and the creativity and sentimentality of Japan. An allegory of how we sink our memories as we grow older in an attempt to transform the present time into something less painful, this sepia-toned melancholy beauty evokes astonishing emotional response without the need of dialogue. Unforgettably heartmoving while playing a version of the Biblical flood, it is an invitation to become brave, dive into the memories that forged our present self and treasure how these moments became independent variables in the final result we are, or probably have stopped being, which entails a tragedy.

  96/100

• Review by amaya

  beautiful animation but it was kinda hard to appreciate it through the tears

• Review by Jaime Rebanal 🇵🇸 ★★★★½ 2

  Only twelve minutes but if this didn't ever leave me nearly half as moved as I was, I'll be damned. This dialogue-free short by Kunio Kato tells of a tale of an elderly man pulling his home up higher as his town is flooding to stay dry, only to go down into the depths after his pipe drops in order to relive memories of his past. Within twelve minutes this beautiful animated short film lets out a huge bang that even felt so resonant especially in its delivery - with a moving image of loneliness and its effect upon one's soul especially after what more we had provided for others, complimented by the beautiful animation.

  Watch here.

• Review by JoshuaCaine ★★★★

  This was so emotional...

  Never try to drown out your past, no matter what. The past is what makes us who we are today, whether good or bad. This was my takeaway from this short film.

• Review by yuki ★★★★

  there are tears...

• Review by Dr. Ethan Lyon ★★★★½ 2

  1st Kunio Katou

  I can't deny that the final three minutes of this really did make me tear up. Certainly, the film is unabashedly sentimental, but sometimes that's a good thing. Katou instils the story with a healthy dose of French spirit, which is where the sweetly twee aesthetic comes from; the large nose of the elderly man and his pipe permanently in his mouth, the rustic drawing style and the wine glass our hero picks up in the ground floor of his house. It's the same translation of an imagined European rustic that can be found in Japanese products as far ranging as the Nissan Pike cars and the Pokemon X and Y games. To a European, it's somewhat…

• Review by Danny

  I thought this was wonderful, and touching and sweet. The actual animation reminded me of something French rather than the usual Japanese style most are used to, but It still used Disney-esque characteristics in the features whilst also maintaining a blotchy quality to emphasise the blocks.

  Apart from the actual animation; which is top-notch; the sound is typically Japanese. But in a way that is affecting in a minimalistic way I suppose, as although it does bleat out enough to be heard consciously, it still blends in with the story enough to create a short film that on an overall level is touching. This film reaches many levels in its short running time, funnily enough.

• Review by Hutch ★★★½

  This animated short film tells the poignant tale of an old man trying to keep above the rising waters that have swallowed his town. He achieves this by building extra levels on top of his house. One day, in order to retrieve a dropped pipe, he puts on his scuba gear and swims down to the lower stories of his now skyscraper home. With each level that he descends, wistful memories of his past return, and in this way his journey ends up tracing his life in reverse. It amounts to a lovely metaphor for a long life now approaching its end, although I found it a tad too sweet for my taste. It is really beautifully done though.

• Review by 🇵🇱 Steve G 🐝 ★★★★

  Lovely and touching Japanese short that scooped the 2009 Oscar for Best Animated Short.

  I wasn't at all surprised when I had a quick glance around to see a number of people claiming that it was nothing more than pro-global warming dogma. Christ almighty. I think there are probably easier ways of making that point than making a painstakingly animated short film about a chap reminiscing over lost loves.

  Very nice indeed, but by no means should you come in to this expecting it to be anything like the usual Japanese animation that you happen across. It really isn't.

• Review by Robert Shupe ★★★★★ 2

  This was breathtaking. This multi layered short film brings the emotional impact and leaves the viewer touched and moved.

  This is the type of reaction we hope to have when we see a movie. This is easily one of the best animated short films ever made. It won the 2009 academy award and it was well deserved.

  It is a Japenese film that uses the visuals to tell a very universal story. It does so without dialogue and is very effective.

  Where we are in life is shaped by where we have been. This movie explores that.

  We have all taken some wonderful trips down memory lane. This is portrayed in a delicate and impactful way.

  It alludes to our…