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| A Morning Stroll |
There are a few standout films in Short Competition 5 of the
Ottawa International Animation Festival, but, unfortunately, the line-up as a
whole is not as strong as the others I’ve seen so far. I’ll have to admit that
when I returned to the festival programme to refresh my memory on the films
that screened in the series, I could not even remember seeing Amigo
do Pieto (My Best Friend, Portugal, 3:07) and Boy (USA, 1:07). Did
these films even screen at the festival?
A Morning Stroll
takes its playful premise and plays it out three times through the filter of
different animation techniques. The first morning stroll offers a cute black
and white hand drawn chicken that pecks about with the jerky movements
introduced with the birth of Mickey Mouse. In the second sequence, set in 2009,
the chicken strolls in a much busier cityscape. The streets are more congested
and so too are the visuals. Now in color, and perhaps computer animated, the
chicken is a modern-day New Yorker. His morning stroll is met with oversized
coffees and telephone video cameras, plus some zombie breakdancing. How times
have changed since the sparseness of the Twenties. In the third and final act,
the chicken takes a trip through the future. Now his morning stroll is a 3D
jaunt through the apocalypse and his fellow sidewalk dweller is a ravenous
zombie. With the trio of styles and sites, A
Morning Stroll is an endearing little film. The blend of past and present
might appeal to fans of last year's The
Artist (A Morning Stroll made it
to the Oscars, too) thanks to its lively look back at the cinematic techniques
that brought us to where we are today.
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| Portlandia 'Zero Rats' |
Also memorable among the films of Short Competition 5 is Portlandia
‘Zero Rats’ (USA, 3:01). Portlandia
is a hilarious feat of puppetry that sees a trio of rats plot a heist on the
new ‘packaging free’ grocery store that has just opened in town. Sprightly and
clever, Portlandia ‘Zero Rats’ is a
funny follow-up to A Morning Stroll,
but, unfortunately, the film comes to an abrupt ending just as soon as it hits
its stride.
On the other side of animation is Paula (Canada, 10:29),
which is a mix of pencil on paper and 2D computer animation directed by Dominic
Etienne Simard and produced by the National Film Board of Canada. Paula is a graphic depiction of life in
a busy urban setting where the lives of prostitutes and little children
intersect in the dark hustle-bustle of the streets. Paula is one of the stronger dramatic shorts at the festival both for
its subject matter as well as for its artful approach to a heavy subject.
Peacemaker Mac – The Island of Dispute (Israel, 4:39) and Fresh
Guacamole (USA, 1:40) also have some success with the their fusion of
form and content, but Shorts Competition 5 is ultimately marred by the
inclusion of its final film It’s Such a Beautiful Day (USA,
23:00). It’s Such a Better Day begins
as a promising story of a man who struggles to coagulate his memories following
his stroke. However, the charm of the film overstays its welcome and the film
runs for a fatally long duration of twenty-three minutes. Shorter is better,
especially when much of the film plays as a loop.
Overall, though, Shorts Competition 5 features some shorts worthy
of admission, especially the Oscar-nominated A Morning Stroll.
Short Competition 5
screens again on Sept. 22 at 9:00pm at the ByTowne.
For more information
on the Ottawa International Animation Festival, please visit www.animationfestival.ca
