Morning Ritual

Eric Power's Morning Ritual is a heart-warming short that takes a daily routine that all fathers and parents have in common and puts a wonderfully whimsical spin on it.

Combining stop-motion animation, puppetry, photographic backgrounds and ambient early morning sounds from his home, Power animates the early morning ritual of a monster dad who just wants his little one to catch some shut-eye. The construction paper DIY aesthetic definitely reminds me of nickelodeon's early live-action programs like Blues Clues or Gullah Gullah Island. Massive nostalgia moment right now.

The Video Dating Tape of Desmondo Ray

Well...Damn.  This is the first time I'm sad that I'm a taken gal, because Desmondo Ray is the man of my dreams. Awkward, uncomfortable, inappropriate; a true lady magnet of the highest degree. Created by Steve Baker of Taxi Film Productions, Desmondo is a man of 33 years (and 3/4, thankyouverymuch) who is on a quest for love.

He decides to set about finding his mate in a very 80's fashion: Creating a dating video profile. This mixed animation/live action short jumps abruptly from touching to WTF, and back, and leaves just sitting here wondering which direction it really wants to go.  But I surmise that's mostly likely the whole point.

Overcast

As their graduation project, UK-based animators James Lancett and Sean Weston created this awesome animation-juxtaposed-into-real life short.  'Overcast' tells the story of a stylized yet simple animated man, who just can't seem to rid himself of a pestering rain cloud over his head. Finally fed up, he tries to flee from this nuisance.

The overall message appears to be "just accept the downpour", which is, to me, an odd message. Primarily, I loved the use of animation vs. real life: It appears to me that the use rotoscoping has been used, which gives our protagonist some amazingly realistic movement.

Sediento

Once again, the students at Gobelins amaze us.  A tired, dehydrated man finds himself at a vending machine, just wanting a bottle of water.  A pretty simple need.  But luck is unfortunately not on his side.  The story is pretty simple, but it's the animation that really drew us.  The combination of 2D animation and live action was really well executed.