Animated Shorts (2012-2013): Australia, UK, Belgium, USA, Canada

Reviewed by Melanie McComb

The animated shorts was a compilation of ten different animation shorts. While there were a few that we’re terribly disturbing, all of the shorts were visually fantastic and most of them were very enjoyable to watch.

My favorite animated short was an excellent combination of humorous, endearing and bizarre. Oh, Willy… Directed by Emma De Swaef and Marc Roels is about a man who must visit his dying mother who lives in a nudist colony. The beginning is brilliant because there is no narration  or dialogue and it doesn’t get expositional. The story allows the audience to just watch and learn what is going on. Our protagonists mother does indeed die and he is at the colony finishing up details alone; he is uncomfortable there and in pain. We watch him go out into the woods, soul search, and have flash backs; through that we learn that he lived at the nudist colony when he was very young. After wandering for some time and removing all of his clothes, he climbs up to the mountains and encounters a monster of some sort. He grows close to the monster and the film ends on a very sweet note. The visual effects were inventive and the humor was very unique but effective. The audience laughed throughout the entire short.
Another fun short, but very different from the aforementioned, was Yellow Sticky Notes directed by Jeff Chiba Sterns. It was a compilation of collaborative artists/animators who wrote out his/her daily schedule followed by a little animation. Each list and animation was very specific; it is an excellent idea to show the different points of view of different animators.
A short I found to be particularly disturbing was Butterflies directed by Isabel Peppard. The short was about a woman that, from a young age, has struggled to keep her dream of being an artist alive. The animation was impressive and had a unique style but one may perceive that style to be twisted. There were certain elements that were downright disturbing in the animation and the score. The other short I found to be creepy, while incredibly interesting, was Old Man directed by Leah Shore. The short is animation that plays along with audio of actual phone conversations with Charles Manson. The animation follows Mansons extremely convoluted and random thought process. I thought the animation captured the disturbing nature of Manson’s mind very well.
I enjoyed the animated shorts and while some were disturbing and not “enjoyable” in a conventional manner, each short was very excellent in its own way.

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Published:
02.10.13 / 4pm
Category:
Films, Santa Barbara Film Festival 2013