This year at Sundance, I have had the pleasure to view the Animation Spotlight which are a collection of animated short films for the price of one Sundance movie. The amazing thing about animation is that the content is diverse and the imagination can run wild.

I am writing summaries and brief reviews for all of them and hopefully some of them are on the internetz, so you, too, have the pleasure of viewing these. A total of nine shorts were presented and I felt that it would be best to divide them so that each post wasn’t exhaustive.

Let’s start with the first 5

Stephen Neary (Dr.Breakfast), Kataneh Vahdani (Avacados), and Dan Ojari (Slow Derek) at the SLC Q&A

Dr. Breakfast by Stephen p. Neary
Dr.Breakfast is about a man who sits down to eat breakfast and his soul breaks free through his eye. The soul has an appetite, travels to different places, and eats everything in sight. In the meantime, the body is left at the dining table unresponsive and two talking deer come and help the man while his soul runs rampant. With a sketch/crayon-like look and bright colors, the animation is energetic, quirky, and offers a fun view on friendship.

Avacados by Kataneh Vahdani
I’ve had the opportunity to hear Vahdani speak after the Q&A and the interesting concept of Avacados is that the animation is done blind. She will look at the animation before and after, but during, the piece is being pushed to a stronger connection of hand and vision. There is no beginning, middle, and end (in the traditional sense) the short doesn’t really even have a story other than observing various cultures and people in a day.

Slow Derek by Dan Ojari
The earth travels at about 1000mph and Derek is just trying to catch up with it. Slow Derek is about Derek who lives an unexciting job in a cubicle until the world changes around him and he is forced to confront the speed of his life. A very interesting and entertaining movie about moving.

Belly by Julia Pott
Belly contains imaginative characters with two brothers that look like elephants on two legs and a big boar who is Oscar’s (the younger brother) friend. Alex, Oscar’s older brother, alienates Oscar and is eaten by a whale. Oscar and his friend go off to save Alex and Oscar leaves something behind from the rescue. The use of chimes, water, and squishy textures are relaxing and earthy. Pott uses her surreal illustrations to create a flesh-complex world and a message that grumbles until the end with dry and subtle humor along the way.

Night Hunter by Stacey Steers
Stacey Steers uses archived footage of silent-era actress Lillian Gish in a new and disturbing role. The majority of Night Hunter has little color with the an emphasis of red for visual significance. The animation is composed of over 4000 collages and takes place in an eerie setting with dark and haunting music.