Still more amazing animated shorts!
Ryan
This is a really striking and inventive cg animated short. It’s a vignette of the animator’s interaction with one of his heroes - Ryan Larkin. As a short biopic it is both insightful and (in surprising ways) challenging, but what I loved most was the creative use of psychorealism (the animator Chris Landreth’s own term) in which psychological states of mind are visually represented.
Managing to articulate aspects of psychology effectively is something I think all great art fundamentally requires; and this animation is really creative at the task. I would highly recommend downloading it as the visuals are very detailed and lose some of the impact with the lower quality online videos.
Closed Mondays
A drunk walks into an art gallery and in his loose state of mind finds it ridiculous – and affecting. It’s a simple idea, but the theme of art being more than just the sum of its parts goes perfectly with the transmogrifying qualities of clay animation. At a time when the semantics, definition, and conceptual qualities of art are being stretched; while still being constrained by backwards-looking generalisations – I found it particularly endearing.
Fast Film
As the 21st century progresses, and our archives of film, literature and music grow, using the tropes and icons embedded into the foundations of our culture in more direct and referential ways is something I think we’ll see more of. Our information-age minds are full of associations and ascribed inherent values, and communicating via art can easily be done purely by subtext; indeed, it could be argued that many films now rely almost solely upon their iconography, and have such suffered in terms of their dialogue and creativity.
Fast Film is a perfect example of using our culture-informed expectations to create a kinetic narrative. It is an amazing cut-and-paste job compiling bits and pieces from a huge variety of films, and re-interpreting their core symbolism into a fast-paced cartoon. The menace of Karloff’s Frankenstein becomes an advancing train, a look of exclaim becomes a startled horse, even the words ‘The End’ are used as tools of destruction. It all becomes all the more impressive when you see just how it was all done.
Jumping
This is a really cool first-person short with a simple idea but a lot of nice asides and details. Essentially, it uses the idea of jumping to juxtapose very intimate events with a grand sense of place, but the effect of being entirely in first-person, and of being one continuous journey actually reminded me of being a kid again – with a childlike sense of scale and an irreverent sense of humour.
Two Sisters
This is a rather disturbing animation, but also very intriguing. The art is bathed in darkness, with strangely exaggerated forms and ambient colours appearing from bizarre perspectives. It’s almost grotesque but there’s something very humane and organic about it also that turns it from being ugly into something compelling.
What’s most interesting, however, is the story. It’s so subtle that it’s only towards the end you are able to piece together the strange abstractions of its characters and place – and in a way, its aesthetic makes sense in a very intrinsic way when that happens. Rather than make it all impenetrable and frustrating however, I really found the uncomfortably hidden images and elusive central relationship absorbing. Watching it again is even more rewarding.
Skeleton Dance
For a cartoon made in 1929, this is actually pretty funny in a slapstick way – and would have definitely scared me had I seen it when I was a kid. It’s still pretty entertaining, despite being frivolous and dated. A perfect example of early-Disney’s ability to make animation with so much character and subtle invention that appeals to everyone.
Sisyphus
As someone who cannot draw at all I often find myself impressed with even the slightest indication of artistic talent. A figure turns into a mess of over-detailed complexity and disproportioned shapes when I try to draw it as I can only replicate what I see, and not re-interpret it in the way those who can draw do so instinctually.
This animation is all about human form. It is simplistic, but nevertheless full of realism. It reminds me a lot of those studies of anatomy in art by Da Vinci, or the articulation of it by Michaelangelo in sculture and sketch. By animating Sisyphus and his constant physical toil in motion, there’s also a great sense of strain and strength within the art. It’s a really deft piece of work that impressed me a lot.
Mt. Head (Atama Yama)
Finally, this is a brilliant short film with a wonderful, fable-esque sense of storytelling and a lovely Japanese aesthetic and music. It reminded me a lot of the more bizarre Gogol short stories such as ‘The Nose’; nonsensical in an almost understandable way. Its animation is evocative and beautiful; and like a haiku or a proverb (or indeed those Gogol short stories) I found myself meditating upon it much after seeing it.
That’s all for now. Once again, there were many more that I left out, although I’ll no doubt post some more of these. Seems like the more I watch of animation, the more I find.
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