Short Film Showcase: Witty, Whimsical 'Fresh Guacamole' Uses Clever Details to Transcend its Brevity
At just over a minute and a half, "Fresh Guacamole" is by far the shortest short film featured in the Short Film Showcase. It also carries the distinction of being the shortest film ever nominated for an Academy Award after its nomination and eventual loss to Disney's "Paperman" in 2013. What it lacks in run time, though, it makes up in sheer ingenuity and wit.
Take a look before we dig in below!
The short has no real plot, no characters, and no conflict; it avoids many of the typical trappings of a film. And yet, it is wholly engaging and delightful. What makes it so entertaining is the way director Pes, short for Adam Pesapane, plays with audience expectations as he details his odd recipe. Pes attacks the simple premise with a playful sense of visual and linguistic punnery that keeps the audience guessing about each and every ingredient. These objects do not behave in the expected way, and in that incongruity comes delight. Take, for instance, when Pes cuts up the baseball onion. He could easily have just cut the ball into smaller and smaller pieces, and that would have still been interesting. Instead, as the baseball gets chopped smaller, it turns magically into dice, which are then chopped into even smaller dice. When Pes gets to the light bulb jalepeno and chops it into small green Monopoly houses, he creates an amusing continuity that gives the film a satisfyingly dreamy half-logic.
Despite the fact that real human hands appear on screen, this film is not considered live-action. Pes uses a type of stop-motion animation called pixilation wherein a series of still photographs of real objects are used in succession to create a moving image. As with any great animation, the devil is in the details, and those details reward multiple viewings. The first time watching, I didn't notice that when he chopped the dice, some still remained larger. This adds to that logical whimsy that gives the film a bulk of its charm. Likewise, it didn't really dawn on me that the light bulb was a jalapeno until Pes pulled out the bulb innards like he would the seeds of a hot pepper.
I could go on and on, which for a picture that is so short is kind of amazing. Immediately after finishing it the first time, I wanted to start over and watch it again, then again after that second time. The short is cute and funny, and it represents economical storytelling at its most fun. Now, I'm going to go watch it another time because every time I do, I can't help but smile.
