Western Spaghetti (2008) User Reviews

Very short but very well done.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 7 January 2013]

Adam Pesapane (also known as 'PES') has created several very strange short animated films. I say strange because instead of using drawings, he uses everyday objects and animates them using stop-motion or similar means (such as skipping frames) to make the things appear to be moving or alive. In his most famous short, "Roof Sex", two stuffed chairs have sex--complete with sound effects from what appears to be a couple of people actually having very athletic sex! Here in "Western Spaghetti", a VERY simple idea (someone making a pot of spaghetti) is accomplished using everything BUT the ingredients from spaghetti--such as candy corn, foil, a Rubix Cube, pickup sticks, yarn and many other mundane objects. It's all VERY clever and exceptionally well done--but also way too short--so short you are left wanting more. Still, it is very good and worth your time if you, too, love animated shorts.

Spaghettimation

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 11 August 2015]

This is another (very) short film by American animation director Adam Pesapane (PES) that he made before his Oscar nomination for "Fresh Guacamole". It's 7 years old and some of the elements in here you can also find in a more refined form in the Academy Award nominee I just mentioned. It's all about preparing a meal and I have to say this short film certainly got me in the mood for spaghetti. Just like all of PES' films, this is really short, only runs for 1.5 minutes, but has a very creative idea and execution, for example the way Rubik's Cubes and money bills got used. I enjoyed watching it and I can see why it is one of the director's most known works to this day. Thumbs up.

Creative and unique

[Imdbidia · 7/10 · 11 January 2017]

This looks like one of those YouTube shows where people teach you how to cook any given recipe. In this case, a spaghetti dish. The cooking procedures and ingredients used in this film are those you can expect in a spaghetti dish, but no real ingredient is used. Those are replaced but daily-life objects that have some resemblance with the ingredients to be used (in shape, texture or color), from the boiling water, to the salt+pepper on top.

The animation is basic but very effective. What stands out to me is the creativity in the selection of the objects and ingredients of the recipe. It makes one think of the objects that surround our daily life, of how much we take for granted their shapes, colors and textures.

This is a quite enjoyable short film. No story, or just a cooking recipe story, but the approach is quite inventive, fresh and humorous and, I really loved it.

One of the best works from PES

[Rectangular_businessman · 9/10 · 3 April 2012]

Very short, very funny, and highly enjoyable. Those are the main characteristics from the works done by PES, an American animator which tends to use everyday objects and stop-motion animation in his shorts in order to turn ordinary situations into something surreal and unexpected (Pretty much like the works of Jan Svankmajer, but the shorts from Pes are way much more light-hearted) In this short, some object (Such As the pieces of a Rubik's cube, dices or even money) are prepared as food. It certainly more impressive seeing it than just describing it.

Along with "Game Over" this must the best animated short done by PES.

Amazing Use of Two Minutes

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 28 July 2019]

This is an utterly delightful two minute short that shows the amazing creativity that a filmmaker can have. It's stop action with a direction, that is to take mundane objects and have them morph into food. The cuts are beautifully done and so much fun. Loved it.

Western Spaghetti was an interesting time-waster but that's it...

[tavm · 2/10 · 25 March 2009]

This was another animated short that won a festival award that Amid at Cartoon Brew recommended. Directed and co-animated by Pes, this was basically a stop-motion short that depicted someone off-screen, except for the hands, using various objects that you wouldn't think of as food (like rubber bands, dice, pieces of Rubik's Cube, etc.) and mixing them into a spaghetti dish. The end. Interesting to look at but since that's all that happened, you'll probably go "huh?" even after watching it a second time like I did. I guess that was enough for it to win an award but really, that was it? Oh well, if that spoiler was enough for you to want to watch this, it's on YouTube if you're willing to waste two minutes...

gastronomy

[Kirpianuscus · 18 November 2017]

it is a challenge to say what is the most significant ingredient of this short film. the correct recipe ? the imagination expressions ? the realism given by stop motion ? or, only, the status of part from a provocative and seductive, in same measure, project ? important is the perspective about near things. and, maybe, about us. and reality. and the secret charm of cooking.