Inspired by the lithographs of 19th century biologist and artist Ernst Haeckel, filmmaker David Lebrun (left) labored for 23 years to make Proteus. Courtesy of Night Fire Films.

In mesmerizing sequences of evolving shapes, animation brings to life the intricate geometric skeletons and extraordinary beauty of tiny undersea organisms called radiolarian in the documentary, Proteus (60 min., color, 35mm). Nineteenth century biologist and artist, Ernst Haeckel’s (1834-1919) lithographs of the single-cell life forms inspired producer/writer/director/editor David Lebrun to explore that century’s fascination with the sea, once the ultimate scientific frontier. Told almost completely with 19th century images, the visual core of the film is artwork photographed from the originals at the Ernest Haeckel Haus in East Germany, and animated using traditional techniques — photographing cells on an Oxberry optical printer. Texts from period letters, poetry, ship logs and scientific discourses make up the narrative. Taking 23 years, the project was completed on weekends or when Lebrun had some time off, “This was my labor of love. I found myself, not having originally planned to, doing an animated feature by myself. That’s a big job.”

Dominique Monfery gives viewers realtime Buddhist meditation in Grasshopper (left). A dogsled trip comes to life in Hike Hike Hike (right). Grasshopper image courtesy of Dominique Monfery and Sundance. Hike Hike Hike © 2002 Anouck Iyer/Opposable Thumbs Productions. All rights reserved.

The frantic Nibbles is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short this year. © Acme Filmworks 2003.

Other animated films to note include: Korean director Moon-Sang Kim utilized cutting-edge compositing techniques to combine animation, miniatures, three-dimensional CGI locales and live action in his feature film premiere, Sky Blue (90 min., color, Sony HD Cam). A tradition Disney-style animation 46 years in the making finally comes to the screen — the creative collaboration between Walt Disney and artist, Salvador Dali, Destino (six min., color, 35mm), is a magical, surreal animation of unrequited love directed by Dominique Monfery. Grasshopper (14 min., color, Sony HD Cam) is a realtime Buddhist meditation into life using various animation styles and derived from live action footage. Also animated from live-action footage, Hike Hike Hike (four min., b/w, 35mm) by director/animator Anouck Iyer follows the rhythms and cycles of a dogsled journey. Nibbles (four min., color, 35mm) by Canadian Chris Hinton takes us on a humorous, frantically drawn, high-energy excursion into eating. (Full disclosure: Ron Diamond, publisher of AWN, produced Nibbles.)