Category: Animation

Animated films provide a source of joy, inspiration, and creative storytelling that can be enjoyed by whole family.

Categories
Adventure Animation Science fiction

Ode to fantasy and sci-fi – “Avarya” (2019)

Avarya (2019)
Avarya (2019)

Inspired by Asimov’s book “I, Robot“, where the titan of sci-fi laid out his famous 3 laws of robotics!

Embarked on a spaceship in the hope of finding a new habitable planet, the human trapped in his own ship after the robot overseer finds every single candidate planet unsuitable.

A splendid short film. I take a bow for the craft. It’s full of the references, from The Little Prince to classic Science Fiction.

Robots, Little Prince and hommage to classic sci-fi

This was brilliant, I’m an avid reader of science fiction & you have me trying to explain the ending to my girlfriend. Is his journey/wish to be this loop forever and the robot makes it so? I’d love to hear someone else’s take. But again..Bravo. This is an example of how gifted we can become, you all should be both proud and humbled,, an achievement here, no lie.

Gökalp Gönen was born in 1989 in Hatay, Turkey. Graduated YTU Interactive Media Design. His short film ‘Golden Shot’ screened in many events and got many awards. Works as a freelance animator and technical director in İstanbul.

Written,Directed and Produced by Gökalp Gönen

Categories
Animation Western

Pixar’s Animators Western -“Borrowed Time” (2015)

Borrowed Time (2015)

Animated western drama short film directed by Pixar artists Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj.

Pixar Animation Studios is known for making surprisingly dark, bold storytelling choices in its movies. For movies that are meant to be accessible to children, they can be sharply daring in the directions they take.But none of these films gets as dark as Borrowed Time, a short film that Pixar animators Lou Hamou-Lhadj and Andrew Coats made as a side project. The piece, which has toured film festivals and is now available on Vimeo for a limited time, is expressly about loss and mourning.

Wonderful Soundtrack by The Last of Us Composer Gustavo Santaolalla

“A goal for us was to make something that kind of contested the notion of animation being a genre, and one for children specifically,” Hamou-Lhadj says in a making-of short that debuted on Vimeo alongside Borrowed Time. “We really wanted to make something that was a little bit more adult in the thematic choices, and show that animation could be a medium to tell any sort of story.”

Directors: Andrew Coats, Lou Hamou-Lhadj
Music composed by: Gustavo Santaolalla
Nominations: Academy Award for Best Short Film (Animated), Empire Award for Best Short Film

Categories
Animation Science fiction

Model Citizen (2020)

Dystopian Animated Short Film

A model child raised by a model family, to become a model citizen of their own! People disliking this short obviously didn’t watched all the Autodale shorts because the world created for the animation is a fantastic dystopia pretending to be an utopia. Model Citizen isn’t the first short of this “Autodale Series”.

>I feel like when something is so obviously an allegory, people should share their interpretations and feelings. Because it’s more likely that there will be differences and so it’s interesting to see how consistent the message is, between interpretations, which I assume the creator wanted to be relatively clear in their message.

A rather disappointing dystopian, that succeeds only in spelling out the pure basics of totalitarianism, loss of Individualism, etc in the most bland and final way possible. Animation passable and mildly interesting to watch

Created by David James Armsby

Categories
Adventure Animation Comedy TV series

Gogs – The Complete Collection (1995)

Gogs (1995)

Grungy, in-your-face claymation comedy about a family of cavemen in prehistorical times!

Gogs is a Welsh claymation-style animated television series in the form of a sitcom! Enjoy prehistorik ancestor as they struggle to survive in a dangerous world. In the Welsh language, the term ‘Gogs’ is slang for ‘Gogledd’ which translates as ‘North’ and ‘gogs’ as ‘Northerners’. People tend to recall Walace and Grommit once asked about there favourite claymation cartoon. Although the latter has of course a unique quality of it’s own it would be just unfair to simply skip “Gogs”. The story’s are brilliantly simple. It’s the use of time and sound that make it so catchy. I will never forget the scene in witch the entire prehistoric and pre-brain family tries to drag a giant (sleeping) bear out of there house (cave). The stupid faces of the characters, the sound of the bears nails on the stone ground and the look of total bewilderment on a passing bird are hilarious.

Bodily fluids, slapstick violence, toilet humour and dinosaurs. Gogs iss simply brilliant.

>10 minute episodes each containing two short stories, shown at odd times as fillers on BBC television in the early 90s. I never get tired of watching Gogs, and it still makes me laugh – the clay figures lend themselves wonderfully to cartoon violence and exaggerated expressions.

The timing is excellent, expressions brilliant, scenarios stupidly funny!

Production: Aaargh! Animation, Harlech Television and Bumper Films

Categories
Animation

Fallen Art (2004)

Fallen Art (2004)

A comedy about tragedy – the desire to impose control!

This masterpiece tells us how some individuals can decide about life and death, and what the army really is. Soldiers are just a tool to achieve the goal of the art called WAR. This award winning animated film depicts soldiers who have lost their minds due to the hardships of past military missions.

Fallen Art is a breathtaking show of animation, which will undoubtedly please all fans of computer artwork, but not only. Baginski’s care for detail and his characteristic style are even more evident than in his first film – it’s a real treat. And let’s not forget just a little touch of macabre… well maybe even a bit more than a little this time… All in all, a great piece of art. Baginski’s in a class all of his own.

Fallen Art (Sztuka Spadania) is Tomasz Baginski second computer-animated short film.

Awards:

– Special Jury Award – FF SIGRAPH, Los Angeles, 2005;
– Golden Palm Award for the best animated film at the International Beverly Hills Film Festival, 2005;
– Grand Prix at the International Short Film Festival in Teheran, 2005;
– Grand Prix at the Tirana International Film Festival, 2005;
– BAFTA – The British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award in the short animated film category, 2006.

Written and Directed by: Tomasz Baginski
Starring: Arkadiusz Jakubik, Marcin Kudelka, Dariusz Toczek

Categories
Animation

Eskos (2009)

Eskos (2009)

Very eye-catchy stop-motion film!

Eskos is a tale of how two disgrega workers react to the presence of a wild animal in their workshop.
It is beautiful whenever you can build a universe with the simplicity of the materials. The art of this film is very clever and i love it. So much expression is given to the characters purely through their movement. This short film needs to be expanded on and become a series!

10 minute stop-motion piece which I shot in the summer of 2009, using space and equipment kindly leased to me by The Engine Room, Bridgwater. The sound was put together by Matt Loveridge, and the direction, animation and editing was done by myself, Barnaby Dixon.

Directed by: Barnaby Dixon

Categories
Animation Science fiction

FlySpy (2016)

FlySpy (2016)

Everything the fly can see Greg can see!

Kid-sauvant uses his intelligence and builds a spying drone fly. Not to save the planet, but to secretly watch his girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend.

FlySpy is one of the first films to experiment with merging 2D viewing with an immersive virtual reality experience. The film was released in two versions: one in the traditional 2D format and the other as a virtual reality film.

>At the first sigh, a bizarre love story. In essence , the portrait of that curiosity defining our voyerism- if I see…everything. If I am a minuscule fly, seeing, not beeing saw. The film gives the perfect answer. About a sort of jealousy, about a form of justice and, not the last, about a delicate side of justice. Inspired end, admirable performances.

Won Best Dramatic Short Film at the 2016 Arizona International Film Festival!

Director: Daniel M. Smith
Writer: Simon Hewitt
Stars: Ophelia Lovibond, Sam Hoare, Lewis Rainer

Categories
Animation Comedy Drama

Purl (2018)

Purl (2018)

Polarizing Pixar’s Short Film that will likely appeal more to women!

Its virtues – the situation is familiar for many viewers, the desire to be accepted by mates is not new, the eccentric of presence of balls is just nice and the end is a comfortable one. So, in essence, this is all. Except the delicate temptation, after its end, to discover knitting.

It’s an important film in terms of women directors telling their own stories. Pixar is a pretty male dominated company as is the rest of the film industry and it’s nice to see that changing.

Inexcusably severe male workforce stereotypes, political agenda of inclusivity shoved down our throats, swearing in a Pixar animated short – I am so tired of this political commentary garbage.

Directed by Kristen Lester
Starring Bret ‘Brook’ Parker, Emily Davis, Michael Daley

Categories
Animation Featured Horror

The Box (2017)

The Box (2017)

A legendary cult classic that will never get old!

In a strange, dark box lives a group of box-headed elderly humanoid creatures with roots instead of legs. Most of these creatures are sunken into a catatonic sleep, unaware of anything outside their hermetic, sealed-off world.

But one of them emerges from the crowd, stunned into consciousness. Young and growing, the creature starts to cause a joyful ruckus, but struggles against the disapproval and rancor of the rest of his box-dwellers. But then the youngster begins to fight back, looking for a way outside the box but coming against its most oppressive forces yet.

Writer/director/animator Dusan Kastelic’s short animation is a surreal yet exuberant allegory about the pleasures and perils of non-conformity, being an individual and pushing through obstacles to a new level of consciousness.

Director: Dusan Kastelic
Stars: Mateja Staric, Dusan Kastelic

Categories
Adventure Animation

Nullarbor (2011)

Nullarbor (2011)

Road rage with an elderly driver!

An animated road-movie set across the vast and barren landscape of Australia’s Nullarbor Plain.

The Oscar choices for Best Animated Short left me and the audience at the theater confused and annoyed when we saw them this morning. Never before had I gone to a showing of the Oscar-nominated shorts (animated or live action) and heard people loudly grumbling about the poor quality of the selections until today. And, while I was not in love with Nullarbor, it was better than a few of the nominees.

Directed by Alister Lockhart, Patrick Sarell

Categories
Adventure Animation Featured

Crow – The Legend (2018)

Crow – The Legend (2018)

The carefree forest animals imagine spring will last forever. However, winter comes and the animals soon realize that their lives are in danger. What they need is a hero; what they need is Crow: The Legend.

An old legend about sacrifice, duty and friendship. Remembering the taste of childhood, preserving the fascination for great animation and giving a noble message. A crow. His friends. The end of eternal spring and a courageous messager for fix the problem. A mistake. And a precious gift. Touching and beautiful.

Director: Eric Darnell
Stars: John Legend, Constance Wu, Liza Koshy

Categories
Adventure Animation Comedy

Onsen (2019)

Onsen (2019)

Japanese monkey team-bulding!

Two japanese monkeys fight for an onsen (natural spring water), but after an unexpected disaster they’ll have to help each other to survive.

Onsen by Carlotta Bourdonnais, Thibaud Garrigos, Carla Gharbi, Bastien Hamidi, Linda Neang, Lucas Planchon

Categories
Animation Science fiction

La Noria (2018)

La Noria (2018)

Sad and heartwarming animation!

A young boy who loves to draw and build ferris wheels encounters strange creatures that turn his life upside down.

It is only animation. A good one, a beautiful one, impressive not only for realism of details or for lovely storytelling, but for something defining it as one of the most impressive parables.

Categories
Adventure Animation

Genius Party Beyond (2008) – Toujin Kit

Genius Party Beyond (2008) – Toujin Kit

Genius Party Beyond (2008): A Dazzling Showcase of Animated Ingenuity and Visual Brilliance

“Genius Party Beyond” (2008) is a tour de force in the realm of animated anthology films, pushing the boundaries of creativity and visual storytelling. This kaleidoscopic journey, directed by a cadre of visionary animators, is a celebration of artistic innovation and experimental narratives. Each segment offers a distinct visual and thematic experience, inviting viewers on a whirlwind tour of imaginative worlds and mind-bending concepts. From the ethereal beauty of “Dimension Bomb” to the surreal, dreamlike landscapes of “Moondrive,” the film is a testament to the boundless potential of animation as an art form.

Visionary Animators Unleash a Kaleidoscope of Creativity in this Mind-Bending Anthology

The sheer diversity of animation styles and storytelling approaches on display in “Genius Party Beyond” is a testament to the wealth of talent within the animation industry. Viewers are treated to a sensory feast, with each segment leaving a lasting impression through its stunning visuals and inventive narratives. The anthology format allows for a rich tapestry of ideas and creative voices to converge, resulting in a cinematic experience that is as intellectually stimulating as it is visually captivating. “Genius Party Beyond” stands as a testament to the limitless potential of animation to challenge conventions and transport audiences to uncharted realms of imagination.

directed by Tatsuyuki Tanaka

Categories
Animation Comedy

Hair Love (2019)

Hair Love (2019)

Sweet animated short film!

A black girl has dreams of all sorts of wonderful hair styles for herself…but her hair is a huge and unruly mess. Her father has no idea how to style the hair…and fails miserably.

Matthew Cherry’s book, “Hair Love” is a very sweet story. So sweet that a Kickstarter campaign was organized to turn the children’s book into a short film. Amazingly, they were able to get the services of Sony Pictures…. hence the gorgeous animation in the short. Everything about this project the animation the subject is just a complete work of love that all children of color should see read and pass on to their own children.

>Amazing short film! It was cool to see a dad doing a black girls hair! Usually the mom is doing the hair and in most films the children are white. I loved how it showed natural black girl hair and the difficulties with it. Highly recommend!

Directed by: Matthew A. Cherry, Everett Downing Jr., Bruce W. Smith

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