What Is a Peanut? Ola Bergner Knows...
I had just finished reviewing "Nim's Winter Tale" no more than ten minutes ago, comparing it affectionately to "Spirited Away" in aesthetic talent and sense of wonder, and I had just thought "I would love to see more from Ola Bergner".
When next on my weekly Newgrounds letter was the perplexing and enchanting folk tale, "Gooberstory", outlining Bergner's fantastical background of the peanut.
If "Nim's Winter Tale" was created with the intent of evoking pathos and whimsy, "Gooberstory" is intended to create fantastic and enigmatic imagery. "Nim's Winter Tale" was not designed to impress, "Gooberstory" most certainly is. The animation is incredible, totally three-dimensional, and seamless, the stupendous music timed and played like descriptive words, telling the tale.
Bergner seems to be a master of story without words, instead choosing to tell tales with actions, sounds, music and mood. Such a rich myriad of flora and fauna Bergner creates in this jungle of his, ranging from the tiny blue and pink guppies to the captivatingly majestic buck with enormous curled horns and a rich brown coat.
All this world breathes and lives around each other, the small prey invading the large predators, the leaf that brushes across the backs of each animal, Bergner has created a living world, one so rich in both biodiversity and imaginative spark.
"Gooberstory" has no precedent. A story of such simplicity and abstraction told via such aesthetic beauty to pierce our deepest senses. This story is not being told, it is being witnessed.
I've never noticed a fish-like shape inside my peanuts, but I think only Ola Bergner could have explained why with such eloquence.