I am a major failure and didn’t realize that after the release of Wes Anderson’s short film on Netflix, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, there were going to be three more released in the days that followed.
To clarify, I did know that Wes Anderson was adapting other works from Roald Dahl, but I thought they weren’t coming out for a bit of time. When the first short film was released, I couldn’t find any more information on the release dates of the other films, nor was there any other details available, like casting. I see now why that wouldn’t have been necessary, but at the time I thought they were still in the earlier stages of development. The casting news wasn’t necessary because everyone that was in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar showed their face at least one other time in the three remaining short films.
The first one I chose to watch was The Swan. What a dark story this was! Poor little Peter Watson found himself in the direct line of fire (figuratively and literally) of school bullies Ernie and his friend. They went out looking for something to shoot when they came across Peter, who was bird watching innocently. They chose to tie him to the train tracks first, then they made him retrieve a swan they killed in the middle of the lake. Peter, just a boy, is obviously terrified, and just when he thinks he has an out, the bullies tie the dead swan’s wings on his back and make him jump from the tree. For just the shortest amount of time, Peter is actually flying, until he crumbles to the ground in his own back yard. We know Peter makes it, as the fully adult Peter is the one recounting the tale. Interesting.
The next one I chose to watch, and possibly my favorite of the four short films, was Poison. In it, Timber goes to visit his friend Harry at night, but when he enters the home, he finds his friend stock still on his bed and sweating. He speaks low and quiet and tells Timber that there is a deadly snake, the krait, coiled on his stomach sleeping. One wrong move and Harry’s a dead man. Timber acts quickly and calls local Indian doctor, Dr. Ganderbai. Together, the two administer anti-venom to Harry and some chloroform in order to remove the snake, but when they do so, the snake is not there. Thinking he’s being called a liar, Harry berates Dr. Ganderbai who swiftly leaves, telling Timber he needs a good vacation. I thought this one was both comical and tense, then of course we’re presented with some awful ending. People are the worst.
The final one I chose was The Rat Catcher. Ralph Fiennes plays the titular rat catcher, who is summoned by a small town to remove the rats from their hayrick. He tells a shop owner and a mechanic that he can’t just lay the poison out as rats are clever and suspicious. He plans to lay out regular oats for several days before setting out the poisoned oats. On the day that the poisoned oats are laid out, the rats haven’t touched them, leaving the rat catcher briefly stunned. Then he tells the pair that he thinks like a rat and therefore has other methods for killing the pests. He demonstrates two pretty disturbing methods, to which the locals eventually shun him for. They’re all for getting rid of the rats, but not in this depraved way. I too was disturbed by this tale, but Fiennes’ look at the rat catcher was honestly hysterical.
Overall, these were great fun and I am curious if Anderson has plans to adapt any more of Dahl’s stories. It was interesting to see Anderson’s typical bright and clinical style applied to these deceptively dark tales. If you’ve got some time to spare, definitely give these a viewing!