Crowdfunding Push: Custodian

The domain of crowdfunding provides incredible opportunities for artists, but also, sometimes, nightmare scenarios. Scott Storm, a US-based writer, director, and animator recently experienced something similar when a funded project of his got a sum of $10,000 pulled out by on of the investors. Fortunately for him, the Seed&Spark service decided to cover 50% of that sum and now Scott is looking to attain the other half through an additional crowdfunding process. But, what is his film all about? Here’s what the page on Seed&Spark states:

Just like my most recent animated short film, 'The Apple Tree', 'Custodian' is 2D animated short created entirely on a computer and in any spare time I can scrape together. While the first film dealt with themes of whimsical adventures of youth and a touch of environmentalism, ‘Custodian‘ delves into darker, psychological themes like horror, guilt, isolation and the quest for redemption all of us have experienced.

Like the footage shows, Scott used traditional animation techniques and it’s great to see artists being engaged in these methods of movie-making. Aside from the animation fans, Custodian seems like a very promising film for horror fans and those into the medieval setting, especially everyone who likes the brilliant Game of Thrones series. Thanks to his lifelong interest in the medieval period there is little doubt that the author has all that it takes to create a dark, low-fantasy animation gem.

So far, the project raised 58% of its target with 14 days remaining. While it is a real shame that artists have to go through the possibility that includes pledged funds being recalled, it’s great that Scott is not giving up on Custodian. All those who want to help him either through a direct contribution or through sharing and following his campaign should check out the film's official Seed&Spark page.

Also, find out more about the project on its Facebook fan page, Twitter page, and author's website.

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Animation, Crowdfunding, Horror,

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Film Review: Zootopia (2016)

Copyright: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Here’s the key selling point to the entire Zootopia shtick – let’s imagine all animals are anthropomorphic and that they live in a single location. Sure, why not, but many kids’ animated movies already did those assemble animal casts, for example, Madagascar.

But, Zootopia smartly spun the same concept and upgraded it with a simple idea of keeping the animals in their relatively accurate scales.  For example, mice use small doors; giraffes use doors many times larger, standing side by side.

This is the main thing working for the film and the generator of 70% of the jokes. The rest come from the notion of animal affiliation, which divides all members of Zootopia, a place where all animals live in harmony, to predators and everyone else. Here, the film and its director duo of Byron Howard and Rich Moore tried to play the tolerance&animosity card, but unlike the scales thing, it didn’t really stick well to the root plot.

In it, a young bunny from the countryside by the name of Judy becomes a police officer and sets about her work. She is driven by an eagerness to show everyone that a rabbit can be as good a cop as any other animal. This quickly leads her to a fox and a street hustler named Nick. Through a rocky start, Nick ends up being her partner while they try to solve the case of animals disappearing all over Zootopia.

In its very much appreciated run-time that is less than 120 minutes, the film desperately wants to tell the audience that being a jerk towards people who look differently is not the answer. While this is a noble cause, this rainbow-Kumbaya approach constantly feels strained and overexposed, as if the authors would gladly spend more time playing with the movie’s environment and what it could provide the plot than going over “why can’t everyone just get along” issue time and time again.

Zootopia is a very good film that managed to take flight even though it had some unnecessary weight attached to it. Without it, there is no doubt that it could have soared even higher. 

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Adventure, Animation,

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Voices From The Mist - A short film by Vladislav Pantić

Vladislav Pantić is a visual artist and animator from Belgrade, Serbia. As a veteran of the gaming industry, Vladislav was included in the game development process for several years before he published his first short animated film called Voices From The Mist.

Featuring a combination of the classic frame by frame animation and CGI element, the short film tells about the relationship between humanity and the hidden world of the fairies.

With a brilliant voice over acting and plenty of atmosphere, the short piece really has that vintage fantasy feel that marked so many fantastic films from the 70's and the 80's. 

I hope the film will provide Vladislav with some of the much needed attention that he could then use to make a bigger project - I have no doubt he has what it takes to make that happen.

Watch Voices From The Mist below.

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Animation, Fantasy, short,

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