A quite delightful movie, Borge Ring’s 1978 Oh My Darling covers the changing relationship between a child and her parents as she grows up and flies the nest. I would describe Borge as a mainstream animator though one can only admire the masterly fashion in which the complexities and dynamics of the modern family are revealed.

His featured movie is smoothly rendered, very accessible and never less than good natured in its story of the girl, the very apple of father’s eye. We see the baby evolve as a chuckling creation in the womb, a source of delight for her parents, father in particular, through adolescence and eventual meeting with the man who will shortly become son-in-law and parent of the new grandchild. Such is life and Borge skips merrily through the years, love and rivalries.

The metaphor of the stork is used throughout the movie. From straight-forward storks on the roof the action becomes increasingly fanciful until the couple themselves perch on their own roof, gazing down at the nest-building of their once so little girl, calling for the fledgling to return; mother sniffs the air, again on the roof, for the scent of her daughter’s cooking, finds it wanting and adds extra seasoning; daughter and mate soar, enraptured, into the sky. The father is suspicious of the rival for his beloved daughter’s affections though enticed by impending grandfatherhood. Only mother needs to be won over and poor old dad, torn between the two households, is quite lost in Borge’s increasing phantasmagoria… Click here to read the full article.