I have always had an overactive imagination. As a child, I was convinced that my toys came to life whenever my back was turned. There were even nights where I lay awake, worrying about what sorts of things the monster under my bed might do if I fell asleep. So if I had watched Good Night, Sleep Tight at a younger age, I might not have slept for months.
When a little boy goes to sleep, he doesn’t suspect what dark forces may be out to get him. While in the midst of mixing potions, a witch discovered that she is out of child’s ears, so she hops onto her broomstick and goes in search of an ear to steal. But the little boy’s teddy bear spots the witch’s thievery and sets out to stop her and return the child’s stolen ear.
Content
This is really a great story. It’s got a sort of dark fairy tale element to it, but it’s also very entertaining and a lot of fun to watch. The story is simple, yet intriguing, and is told very clearly and succinctly.
There were a couple of editing glitches that I noticed, where multiple cuts of the boy’s bedroom showed the teddy bear in different positions. However, this could be explained by the suggestion that the bear’s movements – and perhaps the entire story – existed only in the boy’s imagination.
And though I don’t want to give it away, the film’s ending seemed a little obscure, but at the same time it fit in with the movie’s dark twist.
Visual Look
The visual look to this film was absolutely amazing. The soft lighting and odd color tinting gives an almost dreamlike quality that adds a lot to the mood. The fact that it was shot on 35mm makes it even more impressive, and the film element probably contributed a lot to the great look and coloration.
There was also some good stop motion animation with the teddy bear and the little bug that the witch used to collect the boy’s ear. I also liked the use of creative lighting; there were several shots in which the characters were highlighted by spotlights, and everything else around them was dark. Though one might expect harsh lighting and deep shadows to indicate the sinister nature of the witch, in this case that fact was established by green face makeup and green-tinted lighting – a departure from the conventional, but a very creative one.
