The world gets flooded and each time the water level goes up, the residents of a sleepy village where this elderly man lives must build another level of their houses. In his loneliness, he moves on and not complaining. Until one day, his pipe accidentally fell down to the lower submerged levels of his house.
He then search for the pipe and as he goes down deeper, he is reminiscing the scenes from his past. Firstly, he remembers how he took care of his sickly, loving wife. Then he goes down to a level where they were still a family, raised up a daughter, and until she got married, until eventually the happy times when the earth was still green and beautiful.
"La Maison en Petits Cubes" is either a cautionary tale of environment or a sentimental story.
Different than most of their Japanese colleagues, these animators created this film by perhaps using colored pencil and not drawing the usual anime characterization on the casts. This animation might make everyone depressed with its darkly images of this elderly man during his lonely nights. Even so, the animation will definitely bring anyone to immerse with the elderly man’s life and what he reminisces. An Oscar win back in 2009 was indeed deserving.