Hubert's Brain. © Wild Brain, Inc., 2001.

Hubert's Brain
Contrived wackitude is at the core of this occasionally funny story about a boy, a brain, and the unanticipated dangers of cranial transplants. Using a flashback structure, 3D digital techniques and voice talent including Peter Falk and Jonathan Harris (Lost in Space), director Phil Robinson demonstrates a knack for slapstick and over-the-top characterizations. Yet, despite the surface wackiness, the storyline and situations are extremely conventional, and (unlike, say, The Simpsons or South Park, which the film sometimes resembles) the dialogue isn't clever enough to transcend the hackneyed concepts.

Phil Robinson is co-founder and vice-president of Wild Brain, Inc., where he's been instrumental in developing the company's 3D animation capabilities. His other credits include the features The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000) and Fern Gully 2 (1998), and the TV series Back to the Future, The Dreamstone and Wild Brain's current Mr. Baby. Hubert's Brain, which is Wild Brain's first CG film, was rendered and composited using Nothing Real's Shake software and color-corrected with cineSpace.

Shadow Cycle. © MPL Communications, 2001.

Shadow Cycle
Some extremely beautiful and evocative animation is pretty much wasted in this rather vapid and overly self-conscious film that explores the cycle of life through the experiences of its central characters, a boy and a girl. It's a shame in a way, because the film's sophisticated visual design -- which incorporates a variety of styles, as well as a pleasing use of recurrent motifs and allusions -- reveals veteran director Oscar Grillo's skill and sensitivity. The film's score, which was composed by Linda McCartney, was the inspiration for Grillo and collaborator Paul McCartney, who together drew on childhood memories and other sources for the film's themes. With all due respect to the memory of the late Mrs. McCartney, the music is nondescript at best, and its central position in the film's genesis goes a long way toward explaining the work's saccharine and essentially flat character.

Oscar Grillo was born in Buenos Aires in 1943 and has lived in Europe since 1970. An accomplished graphic artist as well as a highly regarded animator, he is a co-founder, with Ted Rockley, of Klacto Animations. His previous films include Monsieur Pett (1999). Shadow Cycle was created using traditional 2D animation techniques; the colorization and compositing were performed digitally.