The hapless hero of The Lighthouse is about the most incompetent lighthouse keeper in the world. He seems to have never worked a day in his life. When a ship's horn blows, announcing the arrival of what we assume to be a great vessel on a fog-shrouded harbor, he completely freaks out. The bulb in the lighthouse is busted, so he tries to replace it. He fails miserably, and ends up flinging himself into the sea.

I won't spoil what he finds there after he jumps in. Part of the pleasure of The Lighthouse is guessing what will happen next, as the situation gets worse and worse. Incompetent heroes can be tricky - you want to avoid the moment when the audience throws up its hands and yells at the screen, "Do it right, you big dumb idiot!" The filmmakers avoid this problem by giving us an adorable character to root for. He kinda looks like Bender from Futurama, except doughier. The look of dismay on his face as he tries to replace the bulb is priceless.

The movie is an efficient, irresistible tummy-tickler. The use of black-and-white animation is a good choice for a film that's often shrouded in fog. The action is limited to only a few locations, leaving no room for superfluous scenes. Short films often suffer from poor sound design, but that's not the case with The Lighthouse. Listen closely as the lighthouse keeper tries to switch on the bulb and as his feet pad up the stairs. First-rate stuff.