Anima Review: Ordures is packed with delightful trash talk

There's a meme that goes around every once in a while about Pixar's approach to movies that reduces them all to giving various objects, animals, etc. feelings. "What if toys had feelings? What if fish had feelings? What if feelings had feelings?" It's a good joke, and one that can be applied to a lot of animation. One of the joys of the medium is the ease of anthropomorphizing whatever random thing into a character we love, cheer for, and cherish. It's a winning formula, and one that is tackled from a fresh and hilarious perspective in Benjamin Nuel's incredible Ordures, which closes Anima on March 9 at 8:00pm.

A blend of live-action and animation, Ordures gives life and voice to garbage (the title is French for "garbage"). Our hero is Gobi (or, in the English subtitles, Cuppy), a paper cup from a coffee shop who is thrown away by his "Mover," Marie, much to his chagrin. He thinks it must be a mistake, that she'll surely come back for him, that they had a special connection that meant something, that was real. He's a chipper, upbeat hero, with a cute clown-ish face and Marie's name hastily scribbled on his side (another sign of her devotion, clearly), and one whose optimism is challenged again and again by the other characters he meets.

Because other bits of trash see things a little more clearly, or live with a sense of inflated importance. So many of the characters Gobi meets poke at his belief that Movers are good, worthy of love, loyal and true. They're more world-weary, cynical. It's a bit heartbreaking to watch Gobi realize the cracks in his worldview, but it's mostly funny, because this is such a strange premise and unique perspective. This is one of those movies that, while watching, I kept thinking, "How has no one thought to do this before?" Once you're watching it, it's so funny and so weird and enjoyable that it starts to feel obvious, like of course we need a movie about pieces of garbage contemplating their place in the order of things. (Of course, it isn't actually obvious, which is why this is such a gem.)

The colorful cast of characters is brought to life so brilliantly. I loved all their weird little faces, and just the surprise of seeing what objects Gobi would bump up against. There's a pervy cigarette who hitches a ride in him. A few one-time use objects who chat in the sewer, bonded by the bodily fluids they all contain. A smart-phone whose many cameras serve as his eyes, making him one of the coolest-looking characters in the movie. And an ashtray who was probably my favorite, for queer reasons I won't get into here. The blend of live-action and animation of course had me thinking of one of my all-time favorites Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, and Ordures has a similar deftness to its details, and great comedic timing. One of my favorite comedic beats in anything is when a small hero is going through hell -- we're up close, watching them roll and rumble and suffer -- and then there's a cut to the actual perspective, and it just looks so tame and normal. Ordures does that a couple times to great effect, and it cracked me up every time.

Smartly, Ordures seems more focused on telling its story and making audiences laugh rather than becoming a message movie, which it easily could've. Because the messages it might impart are baked into the conceit, so it got me thinking about those things anyways. There's the obvious arguments about materialism and consumerism, the way humans create so much waste without a second thought, destroying the planet and filling it with trash. There's commentary about how humans fancy themselves the center of the universe, a belief that Gobi utterly embodies, so desperate is he to reunite with Marie. And we see the old saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure" play out in pretty lovely fashion when an unhoused man picks Gobi up, introducing him to a world where overlooked objects can have a second act, and a happy ending.

Ordures clocks in at just under 48 minutes, an unusual runtime since it makes it not-a-short but also -- by some measures -- not-a-feature. But I really admire it for that. It feels like the exact right runtime, in service of the story rather than hitting over or under a certain mark for whatever external pressure reason. It's indicative of the confidence of the filmmakers in tackling this unusual story in a way that looks effortless, though I'm sure it was anything but.

Just as watching Toy Story as a kid made me wonder what my action figures were up to when I left the room, Ordures has now wriggled its way into my brain, and I imagine the next time I get a to-go coffee from a cafe, I'll be sure to hold the cup a little tighter, and let it know how much I appreciate its service. (Or maybe I'll bring my own reusable cup from home -- environmental win!)