HollyShorts 2020 review – Bertha ( Aura Guarrido) returns to an old theatre set for demolition as Blue & Malone – Impossible Cases begins. Saddened by the imminent destruction of a childhood refuge she visits the dilapidated structure amid repeated calls from her boss. However, the spark of childlike imagination is still very much alive in her, stifled as it may be, and she is visited by two whimsical creatures that help her to revive her sense of whimsy. Writer-director Abraham López Guerrero thrusts us into a world of arresting visuals and boundless imagination that seems to quake under the expanse of its concept. It is unquestionably fantastic, but just a bit too frantic with all that it is trying to do.

Bertha stands on the stage of the old theatre and discovers a contraption sporting a big red button. The attached plaque instructs her to push the button if she is over 7 years old. Out spring Blue, a monstrously huge feline and the fast talking Mordanto Malone (Alex O’Dogherty), a stuffed animal detective. Who are they? Why, they are Bertha’s old imaginary friends of course.

The more Bertha insists she needs to return to work, the more Blue and Malone try to help her reconnect with her sense of imagination and fantasy by joining them in solving impossible cases. Will pragmatic adulthood win out or will Bertha rediscover the virtue of make-believe? This is for the viewer to discover. Suffice it to say that I was left with a warm fuzzy feeling and the hope that I would see more.

Conceived as a short with along with plans for a feature film and television show, I would say that there is more than enough potential here. The visuals held a fantastic realism akin to the beautiful Scorsese film Hugo that betrays a world that has been carefully thought out. Furthermore, the concept of Bertha and these two wondrous characters solving mysteries like, “where do missing socks go?” has a lot of potential.

Hold on through the breakneck speed and the rapid-fire concepts and you will be rewarded with an ending that is hopeful and seething with spectacular promise.

Big Blue Cat (José Luis García Pérez)

7/10 stars