The thing that is so impressive about the Ottawa Animation Festival short competition is the diversity of entries. Beyond the range of visual styles, there is also an incredible variety of tone and subject matter. The lineup contained a breadth of international work created by professional animators to high school students.
The audience was immediately treated to the marvellous visuals of Dance of Death. Telling the story of an old man’s brief journey into the afterlife, it uses the playful metaphor of his waltz with a veiled skeleton. The sweeping score and animation, which used a jittery sketchbook aesthetic, were magnificent considering it was produced by students of a Korean arts high school.
Showing how broad a form animation can be, Butter Ya’ Self delves into a ridiculous stop motion hip-hop music video featuring various foodstuffs. A rapping banana boasts of his luxurious life in the kitchen, then sent it over to a Nicki Minaj-inspired hot dog bun who “doesn’t make bread, she is bread.” The lively audience was losing it to this hilarious video.
In what was probably the most shocking piece of the night, Supervenus presented a haunting form of social commentary. The short begins with the image of a motionless nude woman on a blank background. A set of hands appeared performing various actions to make her more attractive: installing breast implants, sucking out excess fat. The operations continue into extreme and grotesque territory eventually leaving her a deformed victim of societal expectation.
Heaven’s Countryland ‘Part 4’ from Adult Swim mocks the absurdity of North Korean propaganda, with a satirical news clip on American youth. Portraying them as television addled drones, the claims grow increasingly ludicrous. While perhaps not as unique as some of the finer entrants, the simple 8-bit animation serves the piece well. As absurd as the piece is, it works as a backhanded criticism of our increasing fixation with media.
The bravest piece of the bunch was Crazy Little Thing, a black-and-white tale of alcoholism and physical abuse. It begins with the striking image of a young girl hanging her sleeping father, framed in the foreground by bottles of liquor. The piece borrows a lot of filmmaking techniques, captivatingly playing with perspective. Where animation is generally thought be the realm of children and comedy, it is refreshing to see a piece engage with such mature subject matter.
