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Director: Juan Pablo Zaramella
Release date: June 6, 2011
Rating: ★★★★½
Review:
‘Luminaris’ is a charming and original pixilation film by the JPZtudio from Argentina. The short tells about a man working at a factory that produces light bulbs in a very original way. But the man has plans of his own.
The film evokes a very original, surreal world with gusto. Its sets, costumes and overall design all help to create this parallel world, but special mention must go to the film makers’ superb use of sunlight. They let their personas move with the sun, which looks absolutely convincing on the screen, but must have been a labor of outrageous patience in reality.
The result is a modest but magical little short that connects without any dialogue, greatly helped by the attractive music by Osmar Maderna.
Watch ‘Luminaris’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Luminaris’ is available on The Animation Show of Shows DVD Box Set 8
Director: Juan Antin
Release Date: October 3, 2002
Rating: ★★★
Review:
‘Mercano el Marciano’ is a curious feature film from Argentine about an ugly little Martian who gets stranded in the evil city of Buenos Aires, where he ends up living in the sewer.
Here he builds a virtual Mars to play in for himself on the internet, but soon it is discovered and exploited by businessmen. Together with a nerdy boy and a trio of alternatives Mercano takes revenge. This leads to a silly musical finale.
The film uses original designs and is nicely animated. Unfortunately, it is also hampered by slow timing, poor gags, graphic violence, ugly colors and bad sound design. The result is an original, yet mediocre film, which is not too surprising, when one considers the film was made with a budget of only $250,000 (for comparison: a contemporary Hollywood production like ‘Monsters, Inc’ cost $115 million).
‘Mercano el Marciano’ seems to be an early example of an international movement in animation film, which favors urban settings, violence and rather adult material (e.g. ‘The District!’ (2004) from Hungary, and ‘George the Hedgehog’ (2011) from Poland).
Watch ‘Mercano el Marciano’ yourself and tell me what you think:
Dr. Grob's Animation Review 