Witty, thought-provoking, and wild, the animated short Normal springs its main character from an existential crisis, only to have his solution backfire. It’s a trippy examination of activism without thinking of consequences blended with a smattering of kaiju, Karl Marx, and French actor Gérard Depardieu.
Writer-director Julie Caty (Eden) instantly drops viewers into the off-kilter world of Dany, a fortyish star who has a girlfriend with two heads, resembles Queen’s Freddie Mercury, and surfs lava from erupting volcanos for sport. Normal life for Dany means owning a lookalike robot, doing aerobics with Depardieu, and snapping his fingers for delivery of whatever he wants from “Amazoom.” Yet all the giraffes, ducks, ice cream, and cars in the world can’t stave off ennui.
Dany tries psychoanalysis, an acupuncturist, and an “Inuit medicine man” (whose appearance might raise some Native viewers’ eyebrows) before settling on Magic Powder, a narcotic to make his life feel full again. Mixed with water, the twinkly concoction works for a spell before a delivery mix-up introduces Dany to something more potent: Le Capital: Critique De L’économie Politique by Karl Marx. Dany is so dim, he thinks the philosopher is just a “bearded guy who looks like Hagrid,” but he’s so lost, he gives Marx’s foundational work about economics, politics, and materialist philosophy a try.
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Caty’s animation style uses a palette of mostly blues, reds, pinks, and white with surrealist touches such as the front panel on Dany’s trucker hat revealing his feelings whenever the narrator (Marc Fraize, Godard Mon Amour) doesn’t. Marx turns out to be remarkably hip (“Dude, shake it off,” he tells Dany). He doesn’t just teach his own work, opening Dany’s mind to Voltaire, Chomsky, Rousseau, Thomas Aquinas, and even Gandhi, their quotes populating the screen as Dany absorbs them.
Enlighted, Dany becomes “Super Dany,” cape and all. He decides to spread his newfound knowledge but with disastrous results. Needless to say, some people think what he’s fixing isn’t broken while others just like to watch the world burn (apologies to The Dark Knight).
Dany is forced to find a safe haven while he and the audience muse about how some things sound better on paper. Caty provides a quote from Fredric Jameson as some final food for thought, but the whole of Normal calls to mind sentiments from other artists and would-be revolutionaries: One needs a plan before calling people to action.