Magnolia Manor (2021)
After a mysterious delivery to Magnolia Manor, Booker Gray's invited to the biggest party of the year. If he decides to show up.
Winner of "Best Animator" and "Best Voice Acting", at the 2021 PRIX ROYAL Paris Animation Awards.
Official selection of the 2021 Supernova Kid Wonder festival.
What do a pumpkin-shaped moon, the three-three-three rule, a kind-of-Haunted-house-but-not-really, and a VERY uncomfortable yet lovable character have in common? If you don’t know, you haven’t checked out “Magnolia Manor”, by animator Drew Hernández.
This is the amazing triumph of the odd-one out, the misfit, the adorable loser against humanity’s Darkness and Insecurities. Yup. By the way, this isn’t a beautiful metaphor I’m using for this review. It’s actually the monster of the film.
Shifting seamlessly between comedy, the absurd and horror, the short film makes a resourceful use of Eerie music reminiscent to early Tim Burton movies, which presents itself in musical sequences also composed by Mr. Hernández and sung by various voice
actors.
But its crowning achievement really is the character and background design, and a color palette and sudden shifts in color which are BLOODY INSANE! See if you can spot the multiple homages present, from a character of a well-known Miyazaky film to an iconic location in Kubrick’s The Shining.
Original, quirky, uncomfortable and terribly enjoyable, Mr. Hernández truly “Drew”… a pleasure of a short film to watch."
Nicolás Sáenz Galvis, Creative Director of SAGA Audiovisual
.png)
"["Mystery of Love"] is basically the love child of chiptune music and a haunted merry-go-round, a surprisingly catchy dance track brimming with inventiveness and an undeniable rhythm.
Whatever Hawking does with these songs, prepare to have your socks charmed all the way off."
(In reference to Magnolia Manor's Official Soundtrack)
Chris Coplan, Phoenix New Times
