Dan and Derek Morrow seem to be on the right track with their stop motion animated shorts. With a larger budget, their ambitious and touching narratives could become wonderful films for all ages. “Comet” was adorable, and “Token Hearts” really has potential to be widened in to a great Christmas oriented fantasy film.
A husband and wife that subsist on pecans to make a living from decides to build their very own robotic nut cracker named Theo out of a piece of wood struck by lightning one night. Theo becomes a bonafide companion for the couple in dire need of help with cracking the pecans and shipping them. But as they grow older and die, Theo nutcracker is left behind without a companion, and his battery dies out with them. That is until he’s discovered one night by Santa’s elves, and gains an entirely new world capable of giving him a purpose and some form of companionship.
There are still some details to the narrative that need expanding upon, and though I love ambiguity, I would also have loved to know more specifics on the couple, and the robot itself. Did the lightning instill some magic in the wood Theo was made out of? Or was it just serendipity? That said, for the small budget the Morrow Brothers work with, “Token Hearts” is a fine and cute Christmas short, with great imagination and unique ideas. I look forward to more from the pair of artists.