The Scarecrow (Limbert Fabian & Brandon Oldenburg)
Seen this before online, because it is an ad for Chipotle. It’s a great ad, but still, ads do not count as movies. Checked out the codirectors’ follow-up, a Dolby ad called Silent, on Vimeo when I got home, a cute piece to show alongside that Mickey Mouse Get a Horse movie. The directors previously worked together on Spy Kids 2.
Strange Wonderful (Stephanie Swart)
Inside the psyche of the school monster, whose fishbowl helmet goes unappreciated in the recess yard.
Confusion Through Sand (Danny Madden)
Daaaaamn, drawn and photographed on differently textured recycled paper, wild perspective-jumping desert battle scene.
The Magnificent Lion Boy (Ana Caro)
Explorer finds feral boy, brings back to London, tries to make feral boy comb his hair and sit still for church while a freak show operator hopes to capture him. Tragedy ensues. If you need a stuffy british guy you get Hugh Bonneville and if you need a guy who acts like an animal you get Andy Serkis, so they did. Animation looks like they erase part of the frame and redraw, fascinating. Funny to watch this right after having seen Feral.
Crime (Alix Lambert & Sam Chou)
Episode of an animated series in which a Hartford CT resident has trouble with car thieves and then bigger trouble with the police.
Fingers Tale (Luca Schenato & Sinem Vardarli)
Time stops at noon and people’s fingers and toes detach and go on adventures, alongside other objects like knives and spiral-cut coke-can monsters. Tragedy ensues. From Turkey!
Dji Death Fails (Dmitri Voloshin)
Grim Reaper accidentally resuscitates the guy whose soul he was coming to take. Fun from Moldova, wherever that is.
Snowdysseus (Evan Curtis)
Stop-motion must be difficult in the snow. I didn’t totally get it, but it involved an astronaut and skeletons.
The Wanderer of Saint-Marcel (Rony Hotin)
Subway bum goes inside the gigantic colorful posters at night, cavorts with babes, swims, finds food, all while trying to avoid a giant black beast, which catches him in the end.
Monkey Rag (Joanna Davidovich)
Girl meets top-hatted tree, bottom-pinching ensues. Looked great all finished and up on the big screen.
Olive (Harriet Ngo)
The second movie in a row in which a girl meets a tree. In this one she falls into hole and the tree helps her find her way home.
Rabbit and Deer (Péter Vácz)
Rabbit and Deer are best friends, but after an obsessive search, Deer finds his way into the third dimension, and now the two are having trouble interacting. This is the one I most want to show Katy, but there’s only a trailer online so far.