Dr. Paul Michael Babiak
Department of English and Film Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada
"Claudia Miatello’s enchanting animated short Buon Ferragosto accomplishes for the city of Florence what Albert Lamorrisse’s Le balon rouge (to which it playfully alludes at several points) does for Paris – reinscribing it as the geography of a child’s heart. Miatello’s graphic style – to me reminiscent of Bill Waterson’s designs for the Calvin and Hobbes series – often captures in one and the same breathtaking image the irrepressible energy of its juvenile protagonist and the luminous beauty of his environment. Like Waterson and Schultz, Miatello deftly captures depths of feeling with a line, a curve, or a simple squiggle; and her expressiveness is echoed by the spirited voicework of Diego Palmieri as the young Jacopo Conti, whose monosyllables deeply resonate with the profound joys and sorrows of childhood."
