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I continue my reviewing of the Dutch Kaboom animation film festival with another entry of Shorts in Competition. The festival is 100% online, and can be viewed from everywhere. I’m watching complete programs, but you can easily browse and watch individual films, if you’d please. Anyway, on with the review!
Précieux (Precious)
Paul Mas
France, 2020
★★★½
‘Précieux’ is a rather disturbing stop-motion film about Julie, a little girl who doesn’t quite fit in in her class. Then one day, Émile arrives, an autistic child…
‘Précieux’ is a film about bullying and child cruelty. Mas’ stop motion is very effective in letting Julie’s complex emotions come across. In this film all the kids look the same, except for Julie and Émile, accentuating their disconnection to the rest of the class. The adults are not really helpful, either, and in the end the lesson Julie learns is a very doubtful one.
Genius loci
Adrien Mérigeau
France, 2019
★★★★½
In ‘Genius loci’ we’re inside the head of Reine, a young black woman who appears to be seriously traumatized. Unfortunately, it’s hard to decipher what’s going on inside her head, because Reine seems to be hallucinating almost all the time. The narrative is difficult to follow, anyway, as the animation often switches from the real to the abstract and back. The images, partly based on the artwork of celebrated comic artist Brecht Evens, are absolutely gorgeous, however. Mérigeau en Evens exploit a form of digital water coloring, and often the images are reminiscent of Paul Klee and Der blaue Reiter. One part is done in another very attractive style evoking woodcuts. ‘Genius loci’ is a rather challenging, even hermetic film, but an absolutely beautiful one, with practically every frame being a beauty of art.
Wood Child and Hidden Forest Mother
Stephen Irwin
UK, 2020
★★★
Animation films can be weird, but some are very weird. ‘Wood Child and Hidden Forest Mother’ is one of those films prompting the question how one comes up with this shit. The film’s story is no less than insane and the images are an amalgam of utter strangeness.
The film starts with a hunter shooting everything in sight. Then he discovers a little gnome… Irwin exploits a sort of digital cut-out animation, with lots of added aftereffects. His designs are a pleasant, if disturbing form of underground, akin to Gary Baseman and Dave Cooper. If you’re in for something mental, this is the film for you.
Já fólkið (Yes-People)
Gísli Darri Halldórsson
Iceland, 2019
★★★★
This comedy short follows the life of six people living in the same apartment block. The only featured dialogue is ‘já’ (yes), hence the title. Halldórsson exploits a very handsome 3D computer animation style, making clever use of photographic backgrounds of 1970s interiors. The characters and backgrounds are blended by rendering them both into a grainy overall style. ‘Yes-People’ is less impeccable and less funny than the similar, but much more accomplished ‘Flatlife’ (2004), but still a fun short to watch.
Bach-o-matic
Vincent Flückiger
Switzerland, 2020
★★★
‘Bach-o-matic’ is a short comedy film in which Johann Sebastian Bach visits a photo booth. The result is amusing if forgettable nonsense in a charming black and white cartoon style, rendered in effective 2D computer animation. The best part may be when Bach plays a Moog synthesizer.
Dziewczyna z filmu porno (The Girl from the Porn Movie)
Janek Koza
Poland, 2020
★
This is a music video to a song by Polish singer-songwriter Hiob Dylan. Dylan accompanies himself with a pleasing banjo, but unfortunately his song is rather talkative, and Koza’s black and white images full of simple, sketchy drawings rather uninteresting. It doesn’t help that many images recur within the short time frame of 5 minutes.
Mom – The Worst Punishment
Su-kyoung Kim & Kyeong-wook Jo
South Korea, 2019
★★
This film starts at some space station called ‘Gonjan Doron-X’ but turns out to be a film about the plight of Korean mothers. Unfortunately, Kim and Jo try to tell their message in a rather ugly and wearisome comic style and fairly traditional 2D computer animation. The images are too often blunt and overblown, verging on downright propaganda, and one longs for a more sophisticated approach to get the welcome message across.
The third program of Shorts in Competition of the Dutch Kaboom Animation Festival is called ‘Stranger Things’, and rightly so, because this is quite a bunch of weird animation films. And to think there’s also a program called ‘Bonkers Shorts’… Remember, this festival takes place completely online, and you can tune in and watch endless animation films, anytime (until Sunday the 4th that is).
The Surrogate
Stas Santimov
Ukraine, 2020
★★★
‘The Surrogate’ is a body horror story in the tradition of Charles Burns. Santimov manages to tell his creepy tale without dialogue, and his digital painting animation fits the uncanny, even repulsive narrative very well. Unfortunately, the short seems to end prematurely.
Warum Schnecken keine Beine haben (Why Slugs Have No Legs)
Aline Höchli
Switzerland, 2019
★★★★★
This funny little parable tells us about three very slow slugs (still with arms and legs), who lead a very relaxed life inside the fast and busy insect world. Unfortunately, they grow more and more at odds with their economical surroundings… ‘Why Slugs Have No Legs’ indeed reveals why slugs don’t have legs, and elevates the slug to a life-loving creature, free from the duties of the world. Höchli’s drawing style and traditional animation are both very attractive, and the tale is told very well through the animation only. The fun atmosphere is greatly enhanced by the use of two weird tunes by Bollywood singer Gurpreet Kaur.
Black Sheep Boy
James Molle
France, 2018
★★★
In ‘Black Sheep Boy’ the main protagonist Boy tries to find the meaning of life. On his voyage he meets all kinds of characters, who are all struggling with life in their own way. Molle’s 8bit designs and vintage computer-game style of animation contrast greatly with the philosophical themes of this short. The dialogue is displayed under the scenes, while the characters utter electronic sounds. The result is a cartoon of utter weirdness, but also one that could have used some editing and with its 15 minutes length outstays its welcome.
Elo (Tie)
Alexandra Ramires
France/Portugal, 2020
★★
‘Tie’ is a dark, surreal and wordless tale of a man and a woman finding each other at a swamp. The events are bridged by images of a rotting carcass of a dog. Although ‘Tie’ is essentially a tale of love, the atmosphere is grim and rather unsettling, with Ramires’ scribbly animation taking place on a dark canvas. The result is weird and original, but also a bit tiresome, and not very rewarding, with the weirdness giving way to a fairly conventional ending.
Jo Goes Hunting – Careful
Alice Saey
France/The Netherlands, 2019
★★★★
‘Careful’ is a very attractive videoclip for the otherworldly indietronica music of Jo Goes Hunting. The strange sounds are accompanied by virtuoso 2D computer animation depicting circles, in which all kinds of plants, animals and humans can be detected. Sacy’s employs a handsome graphic style, and a beautiful color design. Both music and images are simply mesmerizing in their strangeness, and this non-narrative short is over before you know it.
Good
Chun-ting Ou
Taiwan, 2020
★★½
In ‘Good’ a little girl tries to be good, in fact, way too much so. Ou’s 2D computer animation is attractive, but at times becomes quite disturbing. Some of the girl’s facial expressions are pretty unsettling. ‘Good’ may show us that mere perfectionism will bring us nowhere, on the contrary.
Strange Occurrences: Bukit Bulabu
Shi Teng Wong, Gloria Yeo & Hana Lee
Singapore 2020
★★★
‘Strange Occurrences: Bukit Bulabu’ is a spoof of ghost hunting programs on television. This ‘episode’ focuses on a supposedly haunted toilet and features interviews with three people. The short never becomes serious, but Wong, Yeo & Lee’s stop motion is top notch, giving the rather simple puppets a very believable presence during their interview sessions, giving their characters natural gestures comparable to the work of Aardman. Nevertheless, it’s nice to watch the use of jiggly pieces of paper as tears. ‘Strange Occurrences: Bukit Bulabu’ makes no sense, and cannot be taken seriously, but it does show that Wong, Yeo & Lee are very able stop-motion animators.
Seoulsori
Kyoung-bae Kim
South Korea, 2020
★★★
Seoulsori is a music video for an instrumental track by South Korean rapper Peejay. The video starts with a bespectacled man looking at a painting. Before soon, he’s immersed into a nightmarish world. Kim’s 2D computer animation is accomplished, if rather derivative, and the constant flow of images is a perfect companion to Peejay’s attractive triphop music.
This is my third program review of the Dutch Kaboom Animation Festival, which is completely online this year, allowing one to watch more than 300 films from his own home. Today I’ll focus on the commissioned shorts in competition. This is a short program, lasting only 45 minutes, but with its 16 short films this turns out to be long enough.
Clipphanger: Waarom worden meisjes ongesteld? (Why Do Girls Get Their Period?)
Natali Voorthuis
The Netherlands, 2020
★★★★
This Dutch animation short tells children in ninety seconds why women have a period. The voice over is accompanied by cartoony visuals in a traditional style that are simple and effective to get the message across.
#Stolen Memories: Johannes
Leo Rey
Germany, 2020
★★★
In this very stylized short Johannes tells his life story. During the film it becomes clear that Johannes’s memories are reconstructed from the little material we know from his life, for Johannes perished in a concentration camp during World War II. Hence the title ‘stolen memories’. The narrating voice over is accompanied by stark and highly stylized black and white images rendered in effective 2D computer animation. The result is a very effective film on the cruelty of war.
A Dog by Your Side
Selina Wagner
United Kingdom, 2019
★★★½
The message of 2 minutes long film I that “life is better with a dog by your side”. Wagner illustrates this with very beautiful 2D computer animation of semi-transparent silhouettes against gorgeous colored backgrounds. The film illustrates several phases of a life in rapidly succeeding short scenes set to music. Apart from the beautiful artwork Wagner’s inventive use of frames should be mentioned.
Halloween Promo -Veronica
Sverre Fredriksen
The Netherlands, 2020
★★½
This is a very short promotional film, lasting only 27 seconds. The Halloween theme is evoked in rather old-fashioned stop-motion, which is as amateurish as it is evocative.
Clipphanger: wat was apartheid? (What Was Apartheid)
Hilde Buiter
The Netherlands, 2020
★★★½
A second entry in the Clipphanger series, which apparently explains several subjects to children in a mere ninety seconds. Buiter illustrates the explaining voice over with images in traditional animation in a simple, cartoony style and rather jumpy animation, which, combined with the strong sound-effects, reach their goal easily.
De scheppende mens (The Creator)
Maarten Treurniet
The Netherlands, 2020
★★★★½
This short showcases the importance of art and design, both intrinsically as economically. This message certainly is a very welcome one in The Netherlands, in which the attention for the arts have been in a steady decline the last ten years. Treurniet accompanies the explaining voice-over with very attractive moving infographics in 2D computer animation in a graphic style that harks back to the 1950s.
Facing Water
Daphna Awadish
Israel, 2019
★★
‘Facing Water’ is an acoustic song on water, illustrated with painted animation, combined with highly edited live action footage, resulting in a rather granular visual style. The images are poetic and evocative, but the film the film floats by calmly without making a lasting impression.
Gardener & Bumblebee
Ignas Meilunas
Lithuania, 2020
★★★
In only 34 seconds Meilunas tells about the importance of bumblebees for gardeners in Lithuania. The narration is illustrated with very charming, if rather childish stop-motion, more fit for toddlers than the intended audience.
Gouda Cheese Experience Mindset
Stef Holtz
The Netherlands, 2020
★
Some commissioned films feel more heavily edited by their commissioners than others. This opening short for the ‘Gouda Cheese Experience’ in Gouda comes across as if all heart has been taken out of it due to too much influence from the commissioning Cheese industry. Holtz’s 3D computer animation is of a reasonable quality (especially his rendering is very good), but his visual style is awfully conventional, and the end result pretty annoying. ‘The Gouda Cheese Experience Mindset’ completely misses the mark, and I pity the poor audience having to sit through it.
Let Love Live on
Daniel Stankler
UK, 2020
★★★
‘Let Love Live on’ is a ninety second promotional film for organ donation. Stankler illustrates this with 2D computer animation, in a very bold and handsome indie design, which is completely his own. Unfortunately, I’m not sure whether his vague images make the message come across.
Tonke Dragt: An Animated Biography
Iris Frankhuizen
The Netherlands, 2020
★★★
A charming biography of Tonke Dragt, one of the best children book’s writers of The Netherlands. This biography only lasts ninety seconds, and makes clever use of several of Dragt’s famous book titles. Frankhuizen’s visual style and 2D animation is pleasant and colorful, if rather unassuming.
Letter to My Body
Elyse Kelly
US, 2020
★★
‘Letter to My Body’ is a poem, which Kelly illustrates with virtuoso 2D computer animation, partly based on drawn and painted material. Kelly’s sense of color must be noted, but the most interesting aspect of this film is the camera, which constantly moves to the right. Otherwise neither the poem nor the visuals make any lasting impression.
Life at Oranjehotel
Studio Motoko
The Netherlands, 2020
★
‘Life at Oranjehotel’ is by far the longest film in this program, lasting 12 minutes. Unfortunately, it’s also the most disappointing one. The short tells about a prison in Scheveningen in which people of the resistance were imprisoned during World War II. No doubt this black episode in Dutch history needs attention, but Studio Motoko uses a hideously ugly combination of 2D graphics and 3D computer animation, which they hardly master. Especially the human movement looks wooden and unnatural. In fact, the looks of this film are so deplorable, I stopped watching it after several minutes. This is a pity, because the concept art shown during the end titles is much, much more attractive.
Warming up: Vliegen
Sverre Frederiksen
The Netherlands, 2020
★★★½
Frederiksen returns with another stop-motion illustrating the disastrous emissions of short flights within Europe. As in ‘Halloween Promo – Veronica’ Frederiksen’s stop-motion is very simple, even rather old-school, but highly effective. He certainly does manage to get the message across in a mere 41 seconds.
Whatever You Call It
Moth Studio
UK, 2019
★★★★½
This is a delightful little short featuring a happy song about death. Moth studio illustrates all synonyms of dying featured in the song with charming, child-friendly 3D computer animation to a highly entertaining effect. These are 70 seconds very well-spent, indeed.
Jabberwocky
Sjaak Rood
The Netherlands, 2020
★★★
The animator of ‘Coffee’ (2012) and ‘At First Sight’ (2018) illustrates Lewis Carroll’s famous nonsense poems in his idiosyncratic scribbly pen style. Unfortunately, Rood clearly makes some shortcuts in animation, hampering the illusion of movement, and some parts of this 2 minutes long film are hardly animated, at all. The result looks a little cheap. Moreover, Rood’s cartoony rendering of the poem fails to evoke its weirdness. Thus, ‘Jabberwocky’ may be fun, it’s not the best illustration of Carroll’s work. Nevertheless, ‘Jabberwocky’ is a nice little fun short. Note Mark Nieuwenhuizen’s quasi-medieval music in the background.
This is my second program review of the Dutch Kaboom Animation Festival, which is completely online this year, allowing one to watch more than 300 films from his own home. I’ll hope to review several more.
The Physics of Sorrow
Théodore Ushev
Canada, 2019
★★★
Based on the novel of the same name by Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov this half an hour long film use a voice over telling partly of youth memories and partly giving us a bleak, depressive outlook on life. The narration is accompanied by stunning painted images, mostly in browns and ochers. These images are essentially realistic, but often very expressive and sketchy, verging on the abstract, with the impasto strokes being very visible. Nevertheless, one can see that they’re often based on live action footage.
Ushev’s animated paintings are by all means a visual tour de force, but frankly the voice over is already very evocative without them, and one wonders whether the novel really required these moving illustrations.
Vieille Peau (Old Hag)
Nicolas Bianco-Levin, Julie Rembauville
France, 2020
★★★½
‘Old Hag’ is a short comedy film in which a French business man visits a voodoo witch doctor in the middle of a Louisiana swamp. He wants the witch doctor to do something for him… ‘Old Hag’ is animated traditionally and has a classic visual punchline. The result is entertaining, albeit on the shallow side.
Meow or Never
Neeraja Raj
UK, 2020
★★
In this rather quirky mini-musical a kitten is on her way to planet B-206 in her cardboard box-shaped spaceship to find the meaning of life. Will she find it?
‘Meow or Never’ is as odd and tongue-in-cheek as it is trite and tiresome (especially the musical parts get on the nerve), but the stop motion animation is wonderful. Especially noteworthy are the gorgeous sets, which have a very attractive handicraft look. During the hallucination scene the film switches to traditional animation, which is also fine, if lacking the charm of the stop-motion scenes.
Pilar
Yngwie Boley, JJ Epping & Diana van Houten
The Netherlands, 2020
★★★½
‘Pilar’ tells about two people who are trying to survive in some post-apocalyptic world, barricading themselves against something rather unclear. However, more interesting than the story are the film’s visuals. The film uses no dialogue or music, but features very virtuoso painted animation on a visible canvas, and fitting sound effects. The color designs and animation are both of a stunning quality. It’s a pity the film makers couldn’t tell a more engaging story with their admirable command of technique.
Kosmonaut (Cosmonaut)
Kaspar Jancis
Estonia, 2019
★★★★
‘Cosmonaut’ tells about an aging ex-Cosmonaut, who lives in an apartment with his daughter and son-in-law. After some images of the young Cosmonaut in space we watch the apartment in a state of disarray, with the woman frantically trying to set things straight. We’ll soon learn how this has happened…
‘Kosmonaut’ is told without dialogue in very clear traditional animation, featuring Jancis’ own version of the ligne clair drawing style. The film exploits an almost perfect unity of space and time, with all the action taking place inside or just outside the tiny apartment. The film is much less absurd than we’re used to from Eesti Joonisfilm, but still has its quirks. The story has its funny moments, but is mostly tragic, with its protagonist living in the past, as the present clearly has nothing to live for.
The Dutch Kaboom Animation Festival, a 2019 fusion between the original Klik! and Holland Animation Film Festivals, has started yesterday. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic the festival is completely online, with few real-time events, allowing the viewer to complete his own program out of the more than 300 shorts and features. More on the festival, which can be watched in ‘total’ for a mere €14,99: www.kaboomfestival.nl.
The advantage of this is that one can make notes immediately after watching a film, the disadvantage, of course, is that making notes and blog posts means watching fewer films. I’m curious how I’ll balance this act. Anyway, I’ve chosen not to browse too much, but to watch complete programs of films. Yesterday I saw two of the seven Shorts in Competition programs: No. 1 and No. 7. This post will be about No. 1, which consists of eight brand new and very different films:
Kkum
Kangmin Kim
South Korea, US, 2020
★★★★
In this intriguing black and white film Kangmin Kim tells about four dreams his mother had about him. The result is a gentle ode to the film maker’s mother, which stands out for its original looks and technique, using stop motion animation of simple, angular shapes out of Styrofoam.
On est pas près d’être des super héros (And Yet We’re Not Super Heroes)
Lia Bertels
Belgium, Portugal, France, 2019
★★½
Animator Lia Bertels illustrates the musings of nine children on growing up with poetic images, mostly in blues. Her images are very beautiful, but also associative, and often only remotely related to the voice over texts. Unfortunately, the images are less interesting than the text, and add little to it. In this respect one must judge this film a cinematic failure.
Dayfly
Baoxingchen Yi
China, 2020
★★★★½
‘Dayfly’ is a strikingly beautiful film on life and death, using the mayfly as a central metaphor. Baoxingchen Yi exploits an extraordinary array of styles and techniques, even live action, and shows a stunning command of metamorphosis and perspective animation. Also noteworthy is her creative use of split-screen techniques, and the moving, melancholy soundtrack. The result is a surprisingly idiosyncratic film to come out of China.
Shapes.Colours.People. And Floating Down
Peter Millard
UK, 2020
★
Simple painted faces change into abstract shapes and back, in hard primary and secondary colors, accompanied by a hectic soundtrack by the film maker himself, which is more interesting than the repetitive images. Clocking just over three minutes this film feels three times too long.
Little Miss Fate
Joder von Rotz
Switzerland, 2020
★★★½
In ‘Little Miss Fate’ a man tries to reach his girlfriend in time, but God decides otherwise. But then God’s cleaning lady takes over… This is a rather strange, quite surreal comedy in a unique underground style, with a fitting synthpop soundtrack by Philipp Schlotter.
Invade
Man Sze Wong
Hong Kong, 2020
★★
Abstract images, made with charcoal accompany the progressive rock music of More Reverb. The images are mostly fuzzy, organic shapes, but at times we can see squares. Unfortunately, the music is far more interesting than the images.
Cherry on the Cake
Chloé Farr
Belgium, 2020
★★★★
‘Cherry on the Cake’ is a very strange and highly original comedy. Farr’s visual style is completely her own, but the animation is clearly based on that of vintage video games, with fitting sound effects and dialogue in text balloons.
Ties
Dina Velikovskaya
Germany, Russia, 2019
★★★½
In ‘Ties’ a young woman leaves her parents in Russia to live on her own in Berlin, but she remains tied to her parental home… literally. This film seems to want to say something about being connected to one’s parents and to start a life on one’s own, but unfortunately remains stuck in a nice, but one-dimensional gag. Much more interesting is the film’s visual style: the characters and objects in ‘Ties’ are animated in 3D pen, a technique I’ve never seen before. These animated images blend in cleverly with the real 3D wire objects, and are truly awe-inspiring.
Dr. Grob's Animation Review 