Ward 13 (2003) User Reviews

Indeed, The Hospital From Hell

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 31 August 2008]

Be prepared for a wild quarter hour of animated mayhem! This will wear you out as we follow a patient who has just been brought to one strange and evil hospital.

This bizarre animated short features dogs with two heads, boxes of "slime," and a bunch of other things that all resemble someone having their worst nightmare. This is indeed, "the hospital from hell," where Dr. Frankensteins are running amok creating hostile monsters.

If you want more ideas how sick this humor is, just sample the pharmacy that our poor patient finds himself in after he escapes from his first bad encounter with some mad man. In the PX, are, "Pain Enhancement Pills, Essence Of Panda, Jelly Babesw (with 5 percent crack), Ebola virus, human growth hormones (make in China), Niagra laxatives (go with the flow) and rhinoceros dose strength pills. After he takes one of the latter, he sees on the back of vial: "danger - excessive dosage may cause brain to explode")." He stuffs the pills in his pants and takes more as the story evolves.

At every turn is either a demented doctor or patient waiting to do our guy in, but he fights back like Rambo. This has to be seen to be believed! In addition to the high-energy story, high production values, good claymation and artwork at times make this animation short stunning.

One of the best animated shorts I've ever seen

[Nightgaunt · 9/10 · 31 March 2004]

Maybe it's because I'm such a big fan of both horror and animated films, but in my eyes this was one of the best animated short films I've seen so far. And I've seen a lot of them because I usually don't miss one single episode of the short film festival specials in German tv. It was well animated and synchronized, the grunts sounds of the "Jason" character are hilarious. So are the fighting scenes and the wheelchair chase. That is exactly what I missed in Wallace and Gromit, the good old violence shown with a big smile. I hope it runs again soon, I have to own that for my VCR. I hope the team that made this one brings out another, longer animated film of this quality. I'll go see it, in case it's as funny as this.

Sick and twisted...and I want more like this!

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 29 July 2008]

This is one of the animated shorts from THE ANIMATION SHOW: VOLUME 2. Most of the shorts in this DVD collection are rather poor because very few are funny and the emphasis is much more or art than entertainment in this second installment. For better films overall, see VOLUME 1.

Of all the shorts on this film, this is probably my second favorite (after Plympton's hilarious short). While the quality of the stop-motion animation was good, what I really liked about the short was its very sick and twisted sense of humor--something that was abundant in VOLUME 1 but sadly lacking on this DVD.

A guy is in an accident. When he wakes up, he's in a hospital that is appears to have been created by Dr. Frankenstein and the Marquis de Sade! As this poor bandaged guy walks around the hospital hallways trying not to be seen, he comes upon horrific experiments and evidence of even more diabolical and useless work by the hospital staff. So, not wanting to be the victim of their next experiment, he spends most of the film trying to escape. It's all very sick and dark, but also rather funny at the same time. You'd really have to see it to understand--but trust me, it is worth seeing.

Ward 13, a must for any fan of animation

[MrSyntax · 10/10 · 18 January 2006]

There hasn't been a short animation as heartfelt or mesmerizing as this. Ward 13 takes you to the pinnacle of breathtaking action packed adventure, complete with tremendous craftsmanship and superb Direction. Not a great fan of stop motion animation? That's OK, here is your cure. After seeing Ward 13 for the first time, my immediate response was that it is easily the best animated short film I have ever seen. There are many animated shorts which come close but there is nothing compared to how much energy and entertainment Ward 13 has given to many a audience. No wonder there ware 2 sellout crowds at Fantasia film festival in 2003 where all that most of the unfortunates could do was stand outside and hear a roaring audience from within the cinema.

This brilliant film deserved it's Oscar nomination short listing

[wickham316 · 10/10 · 14 February 2005]

This film excels in so many areas.It has won awards or jury mentions for almost every facet of movie making including the script writing, film editing, "for amazing timing and extreme imagination in animation,""action sequences (which) are in no way inferior to those of live action thrillers", fast paced editing, and numerous audience awards. Audiences connect really well with WARD 13, and a full theatre, in hysterics during the screening, was quite an experience. I have seen this film several times, and it continues to amaze, with the fine attention to detail, and the hilarious wheel chair chase at the finish, said to "out-Ben Hur, Ben Hur". The only surprise was that it was not nominated for an Oscar.

Excellent animated short!

[Greg75 · 29 November 2003]

The qualities of this little animated gem obviously remind me of Aardvark Studio's work : the same efficient use of plasticine for round-shaped and exquisitely expressive characters, the sense of humour and irony within a specific genre, and the constant cinematographic references. Here, it is the horror film that is spoofed, with an inclination toward the "hospital horror" sub-genre. But it is never done to the detriment of the rhythm or of a strong story line : the humour within the fear is always sharp and witty, and the director even winks at Nick Park's specific work with a chase in the hospital hallways that is clearly an hommage to the chase between Gromit and the penguin in The Wrong Trousers. With such impressive skills, I don't really worry about Peter Cornwell's future : it looks bright.

Awesome!

[tributarystu · 7/10 · 4 June 2005]

This really geeky animated short simply manages to crawl in a most unpleasant way under your skin. After an accident, a rather sinister looking patient wakes up in a rather sinister looking hospital with a load of weird and creepy nurses/doctors. So, once he discovers the cable to the big red "I need you nurse" button has been cut, our friend and patient starts wandering the long and confusing corridors of the hospital. On his way to freedom he faces not only the terrible doctors, but also the monstrosities resulting from some seemingly inhumane experiments. And let me tell you, the road to freedom has never seemed so long.

All the characters look really spooky and the "things" our patient encounters - both objects as well as...beings - were humor-fully thought of and brilliantly implemented. It's a "parodical" and yet scary short, which keeps clinging onto you like some slimy liquid you wish not to have stepped in. Totally awesome!

Hilarious, Disturbing, Amazing... all at once.

[Polaris_DiB · 10/10 · 5 November 2005]

A man falls onto a road, and next thing we know he's in the hospital with bandages over his head... only the hospital is more like a mixture of hell and Lovecraftian horror imagery.

This short is featured on the Animation Show 2005, and it is the strongest animation of them all. It is an absolutely stunning display of almost seamless stop-motion animation that is at times hilarious and disturbing. What is of particular interest to the craft of the feature is the way the expressions of the patient are done only with slight changes to his eyes, while expressions of other things range from full-faced to slightly hidden. The animator, Peter Cornwall, seems to have real control over his animation and storytelling.

This film speaks towards the fear of being hospitalized... there you are, in a weakened state, with strangers and strange things around, with fear of surgery, drugs, and blood, and sometimes you don't know if you'll ever get to leave. It illustrates this issue with a man who runs, hides, fights, and blows his way through obstacle after obstacle to check himself out, and all the situations and things he comes across... a wheelchair chase, a Lovecraftian monster, sadistic surgeons, pills of head-explody... everything that says fun! A very entertaining time that will leave your mouth agape at the end, struggling to decide what exactly to feel about it... see it if you can.

--PolarisDiB

Fast paced and interesting, but too repetitive

[Muctu · 7/10 · 15 April 2005]

The titular Ward is either the psycho ward where our hapless hero believes he is beset by an army of sadistic doctors and orderlies, or it's the worst hospital since Roger Rabbit checked into St. Nowhere in Tummy Trouble. It's an impressive effort with some very nice staging of the endless succession of fight sequences, and some flashes of brilliance, but they don't overcome the repetitiveness of the film.

For some reason The Internet Movie Database requires 10 lines of text, and I pride myself on my brevity. I like to keep my comments brief and to the point and I would think that would be a positive thing for the readers of The Internet Movie Database. So, either this will be posted as is, or somebody at The Internet Movie Database will read it and perhaps consider my plea. After all, I am probably not the first reviewer to post too short a comment.

Wow!

[topimdb · 10/10 · 6 March 2007]

Wow! This film is an adrenaline rush of a movie with unrelenting action and thrills...and it's all claymation! This might be the best short film I've ever seen, or at least my own personal favorite (and I've seen a lot of films). It has the energy and fun of a glorious Sam Raimi film (Evil Dead II to be more exact) and sinks its hooks into you with the first shot. The first time I saw this film, I was filled with glee as I couldn't believe what I was watching. Cheers to the director and all who worked on this film (those crazy Australians!). Seriously though, find a way to watch this film and you won't be sorry!! Simply amazing.

Hospital of horror

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 28 July 2016]

"Ward 13" is a 13-minute animated short film from 2003 and it is already almost 15 years old. The writer and director of this Australian production is Peter Cornwell and this is certainly, more than a decade later, today still among his most known works. He collected lots of awards for this one. And I can see why it was so liked. It is a bit of everything: horror film, martial arts, comedy, racing and of course animation. It is the story of a man who is taken to hospital, but it becomes obvious pretty quickly that these surgeons have no interest in getting him health again. Quite the opposite actually, so Ben gives it his best to get out of the hospital of horror. Will he succeed? And if so, where will his path lead. Watch for yourself. I think this was a fairly entertaining little movie. Really wild and creative, I give it a thumbs-up.