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:

Gopher Broke (2004), 4:18, directed by Jeff Fowler, U.S. Contact: Jennifer Miller, Blur Studios, 589 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291, U.S. [V] 310.581-8848 [F] 310.581.8850 [E] Jennifer@blur.com [W] www.blur.com

In the Rough (2004), 4:50, directed by Paul Taylor, U.S. Contact: Jennifer Miller, Blur Studios, 589 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291, U.S. [V] 310.581-8848 [F] 310.581.8850 [E] Jennifer@blur.com [W] www.blur.com

Suite for Freedom (2004), 15:40, directed by Aleksandra Korejwo (Poland), Caroline Leaf (England) and Luc Perez (France). Contact: Ron Diamond, Acme Filmworks, 6525 Sunset Blvd., Garden Suite 10, Hollywood, CA 90028, U.S. [V] 323.464.7805 [F] 323.464.6614 [W] www.acmefilmworks.com

Oedipus (2004), 8:30, directed by Jason Wishnow, U.S. Contact: Jason Wishnow [E] jw@oedipusthemovie.com [W] www.oedipusthemovie.com or www.newvenue.com/production

A Buck’s Worth (2005), 6:20, directed by Tatia Rosenthal, Israel. Contact: Tatia Rosenthal [E] ABworth@gmail.com

Gopher Broke looks at five particularly interesting minutes in the life of a gopher somewhere in American corn country. © 2004 Blur Studios.

Gopher Broke
Blur Studio, just five blocks from seaside in lovely bohemian Hollywood-industrialized Venice, California, is an animation production house that makes its meal ticket producing game cinematics and TV spots. Features are what they really crave, of course, and they’ll make one by gum, they’ll get one going if they have to steal the equipment from half the soundstages in southern — wait, they work in CG. They could make it in a closet. MONEY. Steal half the money from, I dunno, all the moguls in all the even-numbered houses on Mulholland Drive. Because they’re ready.

Last year they made the Oscar shortlist (though they didn’t get a nomination) for director Tim Miller’s exhilarating short Rockfish, which you can finally see properly on the big screen in the Hertzfeldt/Judge annual omnibus The Animation Show starting this February. This fall Blur released not one but two new shorts, both of which deserve Oscar nods and industry attention: Gopher Broke and In the Rough.

Gopher Broke, directed by Jeff Fowler, looks at five particularly interesting minutes in the life of a gopher somewhere in American corn country. On a dusty road between fields in a rolling farm landscape, a gopher is making exploratory tunnels from one root system to another. It rejects several dandelions before hitting a very hard root indeed. It surfaces to take a look: it’s a friendly-proportioned orange critter with two front teeth bigger than its eyes. That tough last root was in fact the post of a sign advertising a Farmers’ Market, and further proof drives by in the form of a pickup with a bed swimming in crates of ripe tomatoes.

As the truck navigates the rough road, jarring the produce in back, the gopher’s gears start to turn and he immediately digs a pothole and awaits more traffic. Sure enough another farmer comes around the bend, bounces through the hole and dislodges a carrot that falls to the roadside. The gopher does a victory dance, and as he shimmies a rabbit makes off with the carrot. Cussing him out, the gopher tries again, and the next truck throws out several ears of corn in a cloud of dust. The gopher coughs and hacks and loses the corn to some local chickens. But then The Big One arrives as yet another truck hits the hole squarely, dislodging an airborne cornucopia of turnips, tomatoes, and other lovelies.

The gopher participates in a lovely slow-motion aerial ballet with the food, but can’t quite get it together to round up the bounty before it too is nicked by local scavengers. What goods are delivered by the last truck constitute the short’s money shot, as the bell tolls for the hapless orange digger in the form of an aerial avenger called Bossy.