Sarasota Film Festival: Classroom Critic

The mission of Sarasota Film Festival’s education department is to inspire, educate and entertain students by promoting creativity, collaboration and community involvement.

Classroom Critic is a program for middle school students in which they learn to appreciate the art of film and analyze it critically. As part of the program, students screen youthFEST shorts and are taught how to write a film review based on SFF curriculum.

Arya Bulusu
Seventh-grader at The Out-of-Door Academy

In a world where toys come alive, a small nesting doll yearns to explore, but is not allowed to go past the confines of her shelf. While the doll, named Matryoshka, manages to escape the clutches of the bigger doll’s motherly precaution many times, she soon learns that freedom comes with a price.

The protagonist of this short film is, undoubtedly, Matryoshka, and the antagonist starts out as the bigger nesting dolls but slowly evolves. Matryoshka refuses to live solely on the shelf, and often escapes to explore the lively world of toys. She finds excitement and happiness, until she is once again pulled away from the other toys by the older dolls. It seems that they are overprotective and believe something horrible will happen to the young Matryoshka. For a short while the smallest doll is safe in her travels, until Matryoshka falls off the ledge. Everyone else, being no more than toys, at first has no idea how to rescue her, and Matryoshka learns that there is a reason her family has kept her from venturing.

Overall, this short film is beautifully entertaining. The animation is colorful and dynamic, with a touch of whimsy. Unfortunately, there are a few pitfalls. The premise of “a world of toys that come alive when humans are gone” is very overused and has become a cliché. However, it is merely the setting, not the plot. The overlying message of the film, that freedom is always worth it, is a classic theme that has repeated itself many times throughout literature.

“Little Matryoshka,” directed by Serin Inan and Tolga Yildiz, is a delightful and fascinating film, with its beautiful simplicity making it entertaining for many audiences. It is aesthetically pleasing while still maintaining a strong plot, and this reviewer would definitely recommend it.

Myles Summerlin
Eighth-grader at Booker Middle School

“Little Matryoshka” by Serin Inan and Tolga Yildiz is about a toy that has big dreams. The main character is a little Russian doll and the other characters are other Russian dolls, hummingbirds, German fighters, a puppet, a horse, chess pieces and more. This short film genre is a cartoon comedy adventure for kids. The reason it’s great for kids is because it teaches them teamwork. If your kids like “Toy Story,” then they will love “Little Matryoshka.”

The setting of this short film is an office desk. Little Matryoshka is sitting on a shelf with her family, watching the toys play. She really wants to play, so she wakes up her mother, and her mother says no. Little Matryoshka decides to go off by herself with no permission, but every time she does her mother catches her and brings her back to the shelf. About the fourth time she says no to her mother and runs away. Accidentally while running she falls off the desk. To find out what happens, you’ll have to watch the movie, but the movie ends happily.

The actors in the story were very creative. The characters kept adding details. I realize that each character represents a culture: the Russian dolls represent Russia, the giraffe and the hippo represent Africa, the horse represents ancient Greece, and the hummingbirds represent Florida. My favorite scene is when Little Matryoshka is dreaming about flying. The graphics were great in that scene.

The toy characters that caught my attention were Little Matryoshka and her mother. The mother was too overprotective and not a person that plays a lot, while Little Matryoshka is the opposite. Little Matryoshka has an active mind that tends to wander and dream. I can totally relate to her problems.

The music was kind of off in the beginning because it reminded me of a horror movie. When the song speeds up it introduces the scene as a lovely place. I think the genre of the song is country. To me this song choice was brilliant because it goes with the story. Without this song there would be no mood added to the story.

To conclude, “Little Matryoshka” is a great and creative story. It’s good for kids and adults who enjoy “Toy Story.” I would recommend that you go and see this short film.