Ernie's Idea

"Nuts to the left, bolts to the right." That, in the proverbial nutshell, is Ernie's job as a sorter (17th best) for Normal Nuts & Bolts Co., a profession which suits the quiet Ernie just fine until he's waylaid by that most obtrusive of life-interrupters: an idea. Claire Maxwell and Peter Vogel take a swipe at soul-deadening homogeneity in life and work, while cleverly extolling the importance of thinking in this animated short from the National Film Board of Canada. We watch as Ernie's "idea" (a pesky yellow balloon) insinuates itself into Ernie's narrow-minded world (monotonous job, zombie-like co-workers, oppressive neighborhood not "zoned for ideas"), causing him to re-evaluate everything. Although it doesn't achieve the serenely transcendent quality of the best NFB animated films (some of the wordplay humor here seems forced), Ernie's Idea is, nevertheless, an enjoyable paean to exercising one's noggin. Recommended. Aud: E, I, J, P. (R. Pitman)