The Last Belle is a 2011 traditionally animated short film co-written and directed by Neil Boyle.
And when we say traditional, we mean traditional! As in hand-drawn animation drawn on paper, inked and painted on cels and photographed with an analog camera. Boyle, who came out of the early days of The Renaissance Age of Animation, having animated for Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the last leg of The Thief and the Cobbler to be made under Richard Williams' direction, wanted to create a film that would remind younger generations of animators that the pre-digital process of hand-drawn animation was still just as relevant as CGI or even tradigital.
The film tells the story of Rosie, a lonely British woman who sets herself up for a blind date with a man she's met over the internet, who describes himself as "the spitting image of Brad Pitt" but is really an overweight, boorish slob who does nothing but watch porn and guzzle beer. As Rosie waits for him at a bar downtown, he drunkenly stumbles out of his house and through The London Underground in an effort to meet her.
Watch it here
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Tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Wally, Rosie's blind date. He's fat, has an eccentric taste in fashion, reads hustler magazines, and drinks excessively. Good thing Rosie didn't actually meet him!
- The Alcoholic: Wally. His entire refrigerator contains nothing but beer, all of which he consumes in a matter of two hours!
- All There in the Manual: The blind date's name is Wally.
- Amusing Injuries: Wally falls drunk out of his apartment and doesn't catch a break throughout the night until he's catapulted back in!
- Answer Cut: While waiting for Wally at the bar, Rosie casually mentions to the bartender that he must be having trouble with the trains. Turns out, he is. Specifically, he's stuck to the front of one that hit him!
- Bittersweet Ending: Rosie wastes her night waiting for her blind date, and would have been disappointed even if he had shown up. So she ends up with the bartender instead.
- Blatant Lies:
- Wally describes himself in his emails to Rosie as "the spitting image of Brad Pitt" when he's really an overweight, slovenly alcoholic.
- Rosie lists that he lives in a big house while he's living in a crummy apartment, and that his interests are "art, les cinema and literature," all of which turn out to be porn (pinups, XXX videos and erotic magazines, respectively). She also claims that one of his hobbies is working on the gym, while he's morbidly obese, and that he's into fashion...as he's putting on a horrendously tacky Hawaiian shirt with the loudest tie imaginable.
- The Chew Toy: Again, Wally. Even when he gets to the bar just as Rosie's finally giving up waiting for him, he's knocked into a bin when she angrily throws open the door and goes through another round of Amusing Injuries.
- Curse Cut Short Cut: When Wally doesn't show up for their blind date, Rosie angrily states that, "if he doesn't show up in thirty seconds, he's going to be deep in the..." before cutting to a disgusting dog turd.
- Deranged Animation: It was directed by a protégé of Richard Williams. What do you expect?
- Disney Acid Sequence: Wally's drunken tumble through the underground.
- Fatal Flaw: Wally's fatal flaw is his complete lack of control with liquor, making him miss his blind date with Rosie.
- Fake Static: While waiting for Wally to come, Rosie pretends that her phone is dying when she receives a call from Siobhan who wanted to know how her blind date was going.
- Hope Spot: Just as Wally's finally managed to reach the bar and is about to enter, Rosie unwittingly knocks him flying into a bin as she slams the front door open in a temper at having been stood up.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Rosie orders an orange juice when she first comes to the bar, but her nerves convince her to ask the bartender to add some vodka to it.
- In the Style of: The earlier films of The Renaissance Age of Animation. The underground sequence, for example, borrows a lot from the "MC Escher" scene from The Thief and the Cobbler. Roy Naisbitt, art designer for Thief, designed the sequence.
- Iron Butt Monkey: Wally survives a 20-story fall, getting hit by a subway train and getting electrocuted.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Wally lies to Rosie about his appearance and hobbies on the internet and spends all the afternoon drinking alcohol, not making an effort to arrive early. As a result, he is unwittingly knocked out by her date who is pissed off with his tardiness and misses his date with her.
- The London Underground: Wally runs afoul of London's underground system, although it doesn't help that he's two sheets to the wind. However, while the architecture (when you can make it out through the Disney Acid Sequence) is reminiscent of several real Tube stations, the station Wally goes to, Arnez Park, doesn't exist in Real Life.
- Men Can't Keep House: Wally's apartment is filthy and is gradually littered with hundreds of beer cans.
- The Millennium Age of Animation: Notable for being one of the only animated films from The New '10s created 100% analogically.
- Minimalist Cast: There are only four characters in the whole film, one of whom never speaks and the other is not on-camera.
- Naked People Are Funny: Wally loses his ugly shirt after missing the London underground and remains naked until the rest of the short note
- Oh, Crap!: Wally has this face after watching the clock on his apartment and realizing he's coming late to his date with Rosie.
- The Voice: Rosie's friend Siobhan, who is only heard over the phone.
- The Voiceless: Wally.
