Reviews

My First Crush by Julia Pott

Written by andy 10th September 2009, 2:09pm

Posted in: 2D, Reviews

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If you’ve ever fallen in love with a blue fox then this is the film for you. The animation makes use of interviews with people talking about their first crushes. Then using the magic of imagination, Julia Pott transforms ordinary citizens into a seahorse knocking on a castle door or a polar bear on a telephone. It’s a more oddball take on the Creature Comforts idea.

Julia’s surreal drawing style combines the comically twee and the slightly unsettling with an eye for strong design. She makes these commonplace stories into something transformative.

Like this? Watch Julia Pott’s music video for White Corolla.

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Harry by Sam Jones

Written by andy 9th September 2009, 9:09am

Posted in: 2D, 3D, Reviews

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Bad hair day? Well unless you have a giant scribbly pom-pom of orange hair like Harry, I’d count your blessings. Sam Jones’s “Harry” is a short animation telling the story of a boy and his massive, unruly, orange hair. Everything gets tangled in this mop, from hedgehogs to footballs, and people recoil from it in fear when it approaches.

Sam uses a nice mixture of stylish flats, cut out and placed in a 3D space. The short has a sort of abstract pop up book feel about it which is appealing. I particularly like the transitions between scenes.

If you like the feel good funkiness of this animated short, you’ll love Sam Jones’ portfolio site. There’s a floating penguin, a selection of more design and animation work, and a purple knitted dinosaur who goes “ROOOOAR”. Bliss.

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LIAF review: The Bug Trainer

Written by madevi 7th September 2009, 1:09pm

Posted in: Festivals, Reviews

The Bug Trainer

The Bug Trainer

It’s a testament to the appeal of one who is often hailed as the father of stop motion animation that a real buzz could be felt in the audience before the screening of this film at the London International Animation Festival. The Bug Trainer tracks the life and work of Ladislas Starewitch, the prolific Russian-born Polish animator who brought life to bugs and other animals for over 50 years.

The documentary itself is well crafted, with an interesting mix of stop motion animation, constructed sets and filmed interviews. But there is surprisingly little time spent on the work of the great man itself, the focus instead being on a strange parallel love story between an animated bug and the regal Lionness character from Starewitch’s film The Tale of The Fox. I found the narrator bug device both contrived and distracting, and was left wandering who exactly this film was made for.

Still, I enjoyed reacquainting myself with Starewitch’s work, which I hadn’t seen since my heady days as an animation student. There were a couple of interesting tidbits of information and some curious footage of real insects being wired up for animation. Sadly there was not much else here to satisfy the hungry animator, who may have more luck rediscovering Starewitch’s work on a DVD or two.

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Life Without Gabriella Ferri

Written by madevi 4th September 2009, 9:09am

Posted in: Festivals, Reviews

gabriella

Woman strokes fish. Fish squelshes. Man strokes fish. Fish squelshes. Woman strokes man. Woman strokes knife. Man strokes fish…. and so it goes on. I may reveal myself as an animation dunce when I say I had no previous knowledge of Pritt Parn’s work before attending the screening of his feature film Life Without Gabriella Ferri last night at the London Animation Festival.

It’s hard to say what the film is about, and perhaps it’s completely unnecessary. Life without Gabriella Ferri, fittingly, only briefly references Gabriella herself. There’s a one legged chicken, an impassible runner, a wandering spider, a thief, and a number of creepy ophthalmologists. While the drawings are scratchy and messy, there’s a precise, almost choreographed fluidity to the movements of the characters. The 44 minutes of the film are no easy watch. I experienced growing anxiety. Everything here, from the unrelenting soundscape to the neglected child with the bandaged hand, feeds a sense of unease, a clear message that something is wrong. And yet the film cultivates its own internal, inexorable logic, a weird structure in the chaos.

Yup, that’s Estonian animation for you. Tomorrow, light relief in the form of sexy zebras and clumsy undertakers when I review the LIAF programme of Siggraph Asia shorts.

Have you seen Pritt Parn’s work? I’d be interested to hear what you made of it.

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Ugly Love

Written by andy 2nd September 2009, 11:09am

Posted in: 3D, Reviews

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SPOILER: La La Lah, it’s a lovely day, look at the cardboard clouds. I am a cute deer with my cute doe. Everything is peachy. Oh what’s that on the ground? Holy crud my face! There’s a metal thing on my ever-so-cute-deer-face! And now my eyeball has popped out of its face-hole. Hey where’s my doe? Hey babe, you’ll never guess what happened…where are you going? Is it the blood-drenched dangling eyeball?…

This piece of animated animalia was Created by Jane Ashby, using painted cardboard, collage and toy-like animated animals. It has a nice, stagey, constructed feel about it. I just hope it isn’t autobiographical.

You’ll find more animal mal de vivre in ‘Panda Love’ and other animated goodies on Jane Ashby’s website.

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Throw Me To The Rats

Written by madevi 27th August 2009, 11:08am

Posted in: 2D, Reviews

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You don’t fool me, Ratatouille. Oh sure, you may look all plump and cute, with your soft glossy fur, teeny tiny paws and uncanny dexterity with a wooden spoon, but I know where you been at, punk. Sewers. That’s where. Dark stinky sewers, and the dark recesses of the night, when I hear you scuttling, scuttling endlessly, worrying away at my sanity…

Clearly rats are up to no good, and nowhere more so than in this video. Rats are dancing suspiciously. Rats are being taunted by a matador. One rat is messing , threateningly, with a cog. All of this set in a riotous theatrical set of detailed cut-out puppets, live-action, and plenty of behind-the-scenes compositing. Alasdair Brotherston, who directed this video, was recently noticed by Kanye and is now represented by Trunk, along with his collaborator Jock Mooney.

What role did this nefarious rat-filled music video play in this? Draw your own conclusions.

Watch more kuh-razy music videos from the dynamic duo on Alasdair’s vimeo page.

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Welcome to Glaringly

Written by andy 21st August 2009, 1:08pm

Posted in: 2D, Channel 4, Reviews

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Director Grant Orchard’s  black comedy about a man who makes the mistake of going to visit a pal in small town Glaringly. It turns out to be Paranoia-central, chock full of surveillance equipment and suspicious towns folk who just can’t wait to mob-up. Our hero tries to help someone out but thanks to cctv spies jumping to the wrong conclusions and the gutter press spreading them about, he gets on the wrong side of an angry mob. It’s all done in the funky retro 8 bit style of an old timey video game.

Thank goodness this sort of thing could never happen here.

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Interview with Anna Fitzsimons

Written by madevi 20th August 2009, 2:08pm

Posted in: 3D, Channel 4, Comedy, Commissions, Festivals, Interviews, Reviews

Another week, another 4mations director interview…

This week we catch up with Anna Fitzimons, who is working on The Life, Death and Suffer Story, a sort of mock tragedy that introduces us to Verity Burns, a lonely girl suffering the madness of a broken heart.

The Life, Death, and Suffer Story

You’re working on a mock tragedy. Is this Antigone meets The Office?

Ha! No, not quite, but maybe a little, the difference being that Verity is wallowing in self pity (between fits of pique and glimpses of optimism) rather than struggling against some kind of greater force for a noble cause.
Read the rest of this entry »

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Highly Overated! by Billy Allison

Written by andy 18th August 2009, 11:08am

Posted in: 2D, Reviews

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Billy Allison’s animation has the nostalgic feel of a newspaper cartoon strip writ large: strong pen and ink drawing and smudgy greys.  It follows a poor chap who, no matter where he goes: a scrap yard, under a bridge, on top of an apartment building, just can’t get any peace. You know the feeling. He just wants to read his paper but we keep stalking him. Sorry newspaper-guy! It’s out of my hands. He’s got some skills though, he runs like the wind and can climb tall buildings with ease. He even jumps out of a plane without of parachute. SPOILER - He’s okay. All accompanied by a jaunty tune from Steven Sproat.

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Colour Scheme @ Dare to be Digital

Written by madevi 16th August 2009, 3:08pm

Posted in: Games, Reviews

Noobeez: Colour Scheme

Another game based on colours, this time from Team Noobeez. This one is deceptively simple. You control a ball in an abstract, minimalist environment. You can make the ball accelerate, bounce, or stick by collecting colour blocks around the game. Your goal is simple: you just have to accumulate as many points as you can while making your way through the level. You get points for everything - climbing up a wall, clearing a checkpoint, even falling to your doom in style.

The Tron-like classic quality of this game is key: it’s fun, addictive, and very playable.  Sometimes simple is best.

Colour Scheme is just one of the many game prototypes you can try at the Dare to be Digital Protoplay showcase event.

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