AWN Blogs

This short is featured on the Animation Show Vol. 3 DVD.

PES is an animator whose style is unforgettable. Using found objects, through stop-motion animation, he creates bizarre concoctions that often defy adequate explanation. His best film, ROOF SEX, shows us what our furniture gets into when we're not at home to sit on them. In GAME OVER, PES celebrates classic arcade games by cooking up a short made with food and other household items.

Classic videogame fans will recognize CENTIPEDE, FROGGER, ASTEROID, SPACE INVADERS and PAC-MAN. Centipedes made up of blue-frosted cupcakes are blocked by muffins and blasted at by a salt-shaker shooting birthday candles. A toy frog hops across a river of sequins onto watch face lily pads and pretzel stick logs. Beetles replace space invaders as an unseen fighter shields behind leaves, which break apart via hole-punches from the pipe-cleaner laser attack of the approaching insects. In outer space made of black marble, a spaceship with candy corn flames shots BBs at large chunks of rock. Pac-Man is a pizza missing a slice and when he comes upon a pretzel… it's a pretzel. With that you understand what to expect visually and will find that the collision of seeming randomness is inspired. The homage to these Atari-era games is not only captured in the sound, but also in the movement. It's the attention to detail that makes the film so fun, bringing back fond memories of sore thumbs.

This short is featured on the Animation Show Vol. 3 DVD.

Chris Harding's brilliant LEARN SELF DEFENSE is a timeless satire that skewers violence in the form of a 1950s educational video. George is an ordinary family man — just like you and me. Then one night on his way home from the bar, he is attacked by three CLOCKWORK ORANGE-like thugs in a dark alley. The narrator informs us that George must learn self-defense so this will never happen again. So George trains with a burly bloke in the ring, following five helpful tips — diplomacy, planning, faith, technology and preemption.

In diplomacy, we learn that you can insult your opponent and if they're not with you yet then they are against you. In planning, we learn that you must form a plan and stick to it no matter what, because to rethink it makes you a wimp. In faith, we learn that wrong + wrong = wrong, but wrong + wrong + God = right. In technology, we learn that 21st Century weapons allow us to fight from a comfortable distance. In preemption, we learn what to do when we are unsure whether we are in danger or not.

Barry Levinson's Oscar-winning RAIN MAN is the film that defines autism in many people's minds. While capturing an extreme version of the disorder, Dustin Hoffman's Raymond Babbitt is a very accurate portrayal of autism. Though the film garnered a best actor Oscar for Hoffman, the real central character is Raymond's emotionally distant and self-centered brother, Charlie Babbitt. Tom Cruise was recognized as a star before this film, but Charlie solidified him as an actor.

Charlie is a yuppie salesman who deals in expensive sports cars. His current deal is not going well and he is in debt up to his eyeballs. On the way to a vacation weekend with his Italian girlfriend Susanna (Valeria Golino, BIG TOP PEE-WEE), he learns that his estranged father has died. When the will is read, he is furious that all his father bequeathed him were the classic car that ruined their relationship and the old man's prize-winning rose bushes. The remaining $3 million is put in a trust for an unknown benefactor. Charlie follows the leads to a mental health facility where he discovers that the benefactor is his autistic older brother who he never knew he had. Wanting his fair share, Charlie takes Raymond from the facility as a bargaining chip in a game of blackmail.

This short is featured on the Animation Show Vol. 3 DVD.

The more I see this short, the less it works. The satire of the war between 2D hand-drawn animation and 3D computer generated animation creates its world and characters as single multicolored lines. Bob is running late to pick up Diane for their movie date. Diane jdoesn't want to see any films that have spaceships, aliens, hillbillies, chainsaw killers, gators or ghosts. Bob reassures her that they're going to see the latest 2D cartoon with a subtitles of "An Adventure in Ma$$ Merchandi$ing." After the movie, Bob and Diane go up to lookout point and their worst nightmares come true.

The design joke is very funny at the start and has flares throughout, but wears out its effectiveness, because it turns out to be the punchline for the entire film. Director Mike Grimshaw actually says very little about the 2D/3D animation debate. The brilliant stroke of the design makes the story seem weightier, but once the novelty wears off there isn't much left. The second half is a satire of genre conventions, having very little to do with animation. It's a shame because the design works so well. Grimshaw gets some nice laughs from the two bouncing circles that float in front of Diane's chest especially. But this is a case where style cannot create substance when the underlying story doesn't match up with the style's theme.

This short is featured on the Animation Show Vol. 3 DVD.

Tony Comley's ABIGAIL won a special distinction award at the Annecy Animation Festival, a pretty nice feat for a student film. It begins with an airplane falling from the sky with its engines on fire. The passengers in coach sing cheerily "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" as they plummet to their deaths. A man longing for a woman in a photograph leaves the chaos in coach for the more refined first class, where things really get weird.

The nightmarish tale mixes tones in an off-putting way. Haunting moments are followed by jokes. Clues to the meaning are casually littered about, but as the film progresses they seem more and more random. Comley gives us little to decipher his code, leaving us to fill in the blanks for ourselves. This isn't intrinsically bad, but without hints the viewer gets to the point where they get lost as the story twists and turns. As for the animation, the rotoscope-style, similar to WAKING LIFE and A SCANNER DARKLY, is a bit stilted.

This short is featured on the Animation Show Vol. 3 DVD.

Many people will know Bill Plympton's work from his early shorts that aired on MTV, like HOW TO KISS and YOUR FACE. His I MARRIED A STRANGE PERSON! is one of the great (and tragically underrated) animated features. Sadly, SHUTEYE HOTEL is not one of his best efforts. Guest after guest turns up dead at the sleazy Shuteye Hotel. A female detective decides to spend the night as bait to the mysterious killer. However, when the bait gets caught in its own trap, this stakeout could be the detectives last.

With his recent feature HAIR HIGH, Plympton seems to be going through his film noir and horror period. This short sets up the story well, but the pay off is massively anticlimactic. Lifting elements from NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, Plympton's homage feels more like a retread. The one gag story never made me laugh and when it was over I was left with the "that's it?" feeling. While a variance on his typical colored pencil style, his art mixes uncolored line drawings with dramatic flares of color very effectively. Like always, the acting is good with its smart and funny exaggeration. This all goes back to the good set-up leading to a pay-off that quickly lets the air out of the whole production.

This short is featured on the Animation Show Vol. 3 DVD.

Matthew Walker's CG student short about two hapless astronauts made the festival rounds in 2006, bringing a good deal of attention to the young British animator. It made the theatrical rounds as part of both the Animation Show of Shows and Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt's Animation Show. Filled with droll humor, British etiquette must rule the day when one astronaut's boredom leads to a precarious predicament for him and his fellow space traveler.

While the design of the film isn't trailblazing, Walker's sense of timing is wonderful. He has the patience to allow his jokes to build. Sometimes he draws them out a tad too long, but for the most part he hits the mark. For sci-fi geeks, they'll laugh at both the conventions he uses and for the real science that never gets used in other space-based stories. The first and last jokes are the best of the film, which makes for a good start and fine conclusion.

This short is featured on the Animation Show Vol. 3 DVD.

The easiest way to anger the non-adventurous movie watcher is not to show them something shocking, but to show them experimental animation. They become belligerent with what seems to be nonsense and you can watch as the anger consumes them when someone tries to explain the meaning. This could be for many reasons, which I will get to later.

So why do I bring this universal statement up in the discussion of Max Hattler's experimental short COLLISION? Because the film is a great example of the barrier between those who like experimental film and those who hate it. Hattler's explosion of bright colors and shapes is timed to a firework-like soundtrack. His use of color and symbols make it fairly easy to read his meaning. They represent the various flags of the world as they mix and meld and explode into a celebration of multiculturalism. The message comes off fairly obvious… at least for me. Someone else might just see a kaleidoscope of pointlessness.

This short is featured on the Animation Show Vol. 3 DVD.

Run Wrake's devilish short is brilliantly twisted. Using a Dick-and-Jane-like illustration style, Wrake skewers contemporary morality. With words floating overhead, describing each object on screen, a young girl sees a rabbit in a field and thinks that it would make a wonderful muff. With the help of a mischievous little boy, she knocks out the rabbit, takes it home and cuts it open to discover a tiny devil idol inside. Turns out, the idol loves red plum jam and can turn insects into jewels, feathers and ink. The greedy little children then devise a murderous plan to bring swarms of bugs to the idol, so he will make jewels rain from the sky.