Each week the folks at Cinema Circus show a series of short films on Wednesday evenings at the Chilmark Community Center. The films begin at 6 p.m. but at 5 p.m. the circus — complete with jugglers, face painters, stilt walkers, food and music — gets under way.

An advanced screening of the films was arranged. In a world with few certainties, the kid critic is the critic to trust. This week’s reviewers are Henry (age 6) and Gus (age 3) Coogan.

Mechanical Musical Marvel (Dir. Chris Randall / U.K. / 2011 / 7 min.)

Henry: This one sort of made me feel like dancing and playing music. It also made me feel like wishing and building stuff. This film is about a boy and a girl and they are trying to build a piano that plays six thousand pipes. Some of the pipes are made of wood, some made of metal and some that are just plain weird. The big ones make really low notes and the small ones play really high notes. How many octopuses do you think they’d need to tune those pipes? I think they drew the movie with crayon. I liked this movie.

Gus: They build some whistles out of wood and out of metal. I am out of questions.

The Red Hen (Dir. Soup2Nuts / U.S.A. / 2012 / 7 min.)

Henry: It sort of made me feel like we were in Buskirk because we had chickens when we lived there. We read this in school — I liked it. There’s a hen and a cat, frog and a rat. It’s about a hen that does everything herself to make a cake but everyone wants to eat the cake but they can’t because she made it all herself. It made me feel like eating a cake — it did! I think the movie was made with paper or something.

Gus: They wanted to eat the cake but they just fell down and she ate it all. The animals said “not them” so she wanted to decorate it. They couldn’t eat it.

Sharing (Dir. Tony Dusko / U.S.A. / 2010 / 2 min.)

Henry: Oh yeah! I like these! I think they drew it with crayon and stuff. Ok, so this little boy walks over and he said, “May I please play with your robot?” and the other kids says, “No, he’s mine, all mine!” Then the little robot said, “That wasn’t very nice. Maybe you should share sometimes.” But the boy says, “What if they break you or won’t give you back?” The robot says, “I will be fine.” Then, when the boy shares, the other boy shares. Then the little robot says, “I’m very lonely” but a boy comes and holds the little robot up like an airplane and the robot says “Whee! I told you sharing was fun!”

Gus: Nobody was playing with the little robot and he said, “I’m lonely.”

How the Shammies Bathed (Dir. Edmunds Jansons / Latvia / 2010 / 7 min.)

Henry: They thought there was a big giant squid in the bathroom but it was just the tub dripping water. And then Mr. Cat showed them how to turn on the water so then they put the toys in and stepped in the tub. One of them — the one with the sock thingy — was diving. And then Mr. Cat gave them a ride to bed and said “Good night!” It was all made with buttons and arts and crafts and they filmed a real cat! I liked everything about this one.

Gus: I am out of words.

The Squirrel and the Swallow (Die. Arjan Boeve / Netherlands / 2010 / 7 min.)

Henry: The squirrel was looking for acorns and then the swallow was dropping acorns down from a tree. He climbed up the tree and they were having tea together then a big gust of wind came and the swallow flew all the way to someplace warm. The squirrel sent a letter to the swallow — he sends letters by wind. And he was reading a book that showed a picture of his friend with a bird sneaking up on him so the squirrel dove into the book and wrecked all the letters of the big bird trying to get his friend. Then the feathers started to fall off the big bird so it flew away. It was drawn by someone.

Gus: The swallow flew away and the squirrel was so sad.

Lexdysia (Dir. Marc Reisbig / Norway, Poland / 2011 / 4 min.)

Henry: That was short. I don’t know how it was made, but the paint turned into a snake and the monster ate the snake. The movie was about this kid whose father went on vacation and sent him a letter, and then big waves came and his father was sailing back and waving at the house he lived in. I don’t think the stuff he was seeing was real. It was a really good film.

Gus: The boat floated around.

Ernesto (Dir. Corinne Ladeinde / U.K. / 2011 / 7 min.)

Henry: It made me think about me losing my own tooth. It’s about a kid who’s sort of jealous because he’s the only one who hasn’t lost a tooth in his class. But then he’s not so embarrassed because his teeth sing. They go, “Dah dah dah dah nah nah!” Then his teeth just fall out and they don’t sing anymore. All the kids shrug because Ernesto’s teeth just fell out — they can’t sing anymore.

Gus: I loved this one when I was little. It looks like salami (inside his mouth). When his teeth were in, his friends laughed and said “ha ha ha ha.” Wanna see how he dances? [Gets up and does a dance].

How to Save a Life (Dir. Jessica Carlson / U.S.A. / 2011 / 1 min.)

Henry: It made me feel like playing with Bananagrams. It didn’t really have a story — it was just someone spelling things from a song. I liked when the Bananagrams were in the sink.

Gus: I have no words.

Orange O Despair (Dir. John Banana / France / 2011 / 4 min.)

Henry: It was about this orange that wanted to be in the pineapple section because the pineapple section looked more fun than the orange section. Then someone bought the orange and turned him into a doll head and turned out the light and the orange was like, “Ahhhhhhgh!” The movie looked real — the drawings, not the characters.

Gus: She took the orange and turned him into a doll baby!