A lively, engaging documentary

Like Norman’s animation, An Animated Life is funny, bouncy, charming and filled with heart and passion, but unlike the animator’s signature drawings, it only occasionally captures the purity and wide-eyed innocence found in Norman’s child-like 79-year-old self (he’s now 81 years old). While perhaps too pleasant and aggressively slight for its own good, both the subject and the documentary are irresistibility charming at their finest, and it’s easy to see why everyone grew to love, respect and admire Norman, no matter how little time they spent with him. It’s disappointingly toothless at time, and it’s also sweet enough to give you a cavity, but Fiore and Sharkey have made a squeaky-clean charmer, one that’s more than just animated. It’s exhilarating and enthralling, and it proves that classic Disney magic almost always comes from a very specific source. http://www.cutprintfilm.com/reviews/floyd-norman-animated-life/