6 responses to “Something to make you smile.”

1. Cute yet disturbing. Did you catch the barely audible *splat* at the end?

2. Of course.

   It’s the kiwi’s decision to have this one moment of glory, knowing what’s at the end. It’s bittersweet and touching. But I’m not going to tell people, “This is so touching” if they haven’t seen it yet, because the ending is a surprise.

3. Normally, I would agree with you; the decission to to take one’s life in one’s hands and go out in a blaze of glory is truly admirable. But the problem is that this is not glory, but rather the illusion of glory. The kiwi may have achieved the visual sensation of trees rushing past it and the tactile sensations of air flowing around it at amazing speeds, and a lack of ground beneath its feet, but as a certain Pixar character would say “That’s not flying; that’s falling with style.” The kiwi can only partially fool itself into thinking that it’s flying as the body can feel the direction of gravity’s pull upon it, and no outside observer of the act that does not benefit from special cammera perspectives as we do would be fooled into seeing anything but a kiwi plumeting to his death.

   Had the kiwi found away to actually fly and die in the proccess, and have witnesses to the fact, I would agree with you, Hutch, but as it is this just strikes me as sad (about as sad as the fact that I spent this much time analyzing a 2 1/2 min. long cartoon).

4. It’s also a cartoon. Falls off cliffs aren’t fatal, even if you hear a splat.

   — W. E. Coyote, Genius

5. Actually the more I think about it the sadder I get. If that kiwi was that smart and that determined it should’ve been able to fashion a hang glider or something to get a safer simulation of flight.

6. I actually thought the “sad” aspect of the film gave it some emotional resonance– elevating it beyond a mere gag. I thought the whole thing was very sweet.

   ==Tom