Within the world of animation, most experimentation occurs within short format productions, whether they be high-budgeted commercials, low-budgeted independent shorts or something in between. The growing number of short film festivals around the world attest to the vitality of these works, but there are few other venues for exhibition of them or even written reviews. As a result, distribution tends to be difficult and irregular. On a regular basis, Animation World Magazine will highlight some of the most interesting with short, descriptive overviews.

If you have the QuickTime plug-in, you can view a clip from each film by simply clicking the image.

This Month:

Guard Dog (2004), 5:00 minutes, directed by Bill Plympton, U.S.A. Contact: Bill Plympton [E] plymptoons@aol.com [W] www.plymptoons.com

Fallen Art (2004), 5:50 minutes, directed by Tomek Baginski. Poland. Contact: Corey Petersen, Apollo Cinema [T] 323.939.1122 [F] 323.939.1133 [E] corey@apollocinema.com [W] www.fallen-art.com, www.apollocinema.com

The Revolution of the Crabs (La Révolution des Crabes) (2004), 5:02 minutes, directed by Arthur De Pins, France. Contact: Jérémy Rochigneux, Metronomic, 24 rue du Pré Saint Gervais 93500 Pantin. [T] 33(0)1 41 71 37 58 [F]: 33(0)1 41 71 31 02 [E] contact@metronomic-productions.com [W] www.metronomic.fr, www.arthurdepins.com

9 (2004), 10:50 minutes, directed by Shane Acker, U.S.A. Contact: Shane Acker, Think Art Films [E] shanecker@hotmail.com [W] www.shaneacker.com

It’s the Cat (2004), 3:20 minutes, directed by Mark Kausler, U.S.A. Contact: Mark Kausler [E] mkausler@earthlink.net; Greg Ford [T] 818.409.9368 [E] fordcoink@hotmail.com

With his Oscar-nominated short film Guard Dog, Bill Plympton’s timing has never been better while the design is refreshingly cartoony and the music is a scream. © 2004 Bill Plympton.

Guard Dog
Doggie will not shut up. The dog on walkies, the dog in the apartment next door, the invisible dog a block away — why doggie not zip it? What can it see that I can’t? The future, apparently, in every threatening little detail — the vast playground of treachery hidden in, say, a caterpillar, or that razor-sharp crabgrass. Doggie has YOUR best interests in mind, according to Bill Plympton’s short, Guard Dog.

With his Oscar-nominated short film, Plympton has returned to the color textures and whip-smart comic timing of the funniest short in his C.V., and maybe the funniest item ever to play a festival screening, 25 Ways to Quit Smoking. In Guard Dog, a pug-like beast with a penchant for tummy rubs takes its owner for a walk. In the park this overanxious pet tries to walk off its excess energy in a leisurely bounce down the sidewalk, but it keeps getting sidetracked by nightmare visions of the park’s inhabitants attacking its owner in nefarious ways.

As the dog barks its head off, scaring off one predator after another, we take a peek in the dog’s mind as it envisions a series of paranoid scenarios. Little wonder the poor thing is so excitable — that gopher popping up on the lawn, for instance, might dig a 20-foot pit, hide a bull and a Ronald McDonald costume in it, camouflage the hole, and lure the dog’s owner onto it, whereupon he would fall into the costume, land in front of the bull, and face the wrath of a mad cow avenging his ground-up family members. Gophers do that.

I shouldn’t reveal more, but Plympton’s timing has never been better, the design is refreshingly cartoony and the music is a scream. Plympton drew his frames with colored pencils, as usual, and everything was scanned to digital video, which is a first for the animator. In addition to its Oscar nod, Guard Dog will be touring with the omnibus feature, The Animation Show, beginning in late February 2005.