In Breif: I'm going to go over the 9 films featured in the fantastic animated shorts. There was 9 shorts, some where brilliant, some were good, others were confusing. All entertaining. The films featured were Paperman, The Great Rabbit, The Pub, The Hunter, Villa Antopoff, The Country of Wolves, Butterflies, Captain Hu, It's such a beautiful day. You can see the list HERE, and get more details on the particular films if your interested.
More after the break.
Paperman is the film with the highest production values to it. Its a simple and sweet story of boy meets girl, girl boards train when guys back is turned and never see's her again, until later that day when she appears to be applying for a job in the building across from the boy. Boy tries to use his paperwork to get her attention in the form of paper airplanes.
It's a great little short (its going to feature in front of Disney's Wreck it Ralph.), and has a nice animation style. Its 3D animation, but it looks to have a hand drawn look over the top of it. The characters are nicely designed and it has the smoothest animation of those featured. I'd been really looking forward to this one, with People from Pixar having made a big deal about it, and while its beautifully animated, i think the story is a little simplistic and fantastical to make it great. Stil, highly entertaining.
The Great Rabbit is just weird, plain freakin weird. But still enjoyable. I'm not sure how to explain it, the characters are drawn in a big balloon-ish fasion, real simplistic. It got it's share of laughs.
The Pub was really kinda cool. Featuring a Woman (who might be either young or on in years) running a small English pub, and covering her a night in her life. The animation looks to have been drawn over footage that has been taken. Its a nice touch as the characters change fluidly from human to creatures that represnt what the bartender see's the people as. Its a nice short, with a somber ending.
The Hunter was probably one of the most uniquely animated of the lot. Its done, with Sand. Sand from the beach. And its beautiful. Its really surprising the level of detail artist/director Marieka Walsh manages to get out of the sand, and how fluid it is. There's shadow and shade, and the story of a Hunter looking for a boy who may or may not have been taken by the wolves is great. You can check out some of the details of it here.
Villa Antropoff is another great one. The animation style reminded me of the TV series 'Aaahhh Real Monsters' from the 90's. It features a African man the sets off his land into the ocean, and a Gangster wedding. Somehow, the two stories meet. It's funny, Dark and more then a little Mature at times.
The Country of Wolves was interesting, but i have to admit. I kinda fell asleep in it, so i wasn't able to keep up with it. There was a man and his brother, lost in the snow, finding a settlement where they go out to see if they can find help in finding they're way home, but the town has some terrible secrets. It was nicely animated, good use of colors. I just didn't find it particularly engaging.
Butterflies was a Stop motion animation, and probably one that got the best reception from the crowd. A locally made story about a woman who aims to be a artist, and how a work life can dampen one's ambitions. Nicely made, but a problem that i have with it, and its not really a massive problem, since its fairly common with most stop motion features is how Gothic and frightening the characters look, its not a bad thing really, just personal preference, and the design of the characters does help to create the good of the piece . It's a nicely little story and worth watching, i felt like it ran a little long at 12 minutes though.
Captain Hu is the story of a boat captain who's vessel is marooned and his attempts to get it back in the water, while dealing with a Yetti and a money hungrey local. The animation style was interesting, largely white lines on a blue background, and the characters don't have heads, they're facial features just sort of float there, away from they're body. Simple fun and importantly funny animation.
It's such a Beautiful Day ended up being my favorite of the lot, its also the longest, coming in at 23 minutes. It's the continued story of Bill, a man with a dissolving health problem and the voice narrating his life. It uses various types of media, still photographs, hand drawn and video to convey the story, and its a strangely beautiful and depressing film. Its part 3 in a series, but you don't need to have seen the earlier films to enjoy it, all 3 will be coming out on dvd sometime in the future and i'm planning on picking it up. you can check out some of the other work at Bitter Films
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