Roald Dahl Shorts: Wes Anderson’s Brilliant New Short Films (Netflix)

Four new short films based on Roald Dahl books have just released on Netflix.

Today, Netflix released the last of four new Wes Anderson short films. All were based on Roald Dahl short stories, and all were delightfully odd, brightly colored, and playful, even though the material wasn’t 100 percent light.

Anderson decided that Dahl’s own words were such an essential part of the stories that he decided to use narration in each of the shorts. This brilliant creative move was made even better by the deadpan, dry-wit British delivery of the actors either narrating or reciting quotes from Dahl’s story.

Everything is very Wes Anderson-y. The pastel color palette and fantastical vibe are there as expected, but that vibe gets turned up even more. The sets are all designed to look like we’re watching a play. Set pieces fall, slide forward, open, shut, and drop down from above. It makes these shorts that much more fun to watch.

The stories, by order of release, are: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Swan, The Rat Catcher, and Poison.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is the longest of the four shorts, clocking in at 39 minutes. A story-inside-a-story, Henry Sugar is about a guru…