This is one of the best shorts coming from the Arles Supinfocom animation school I've seen in years, and I wouldn't have identified it as a Supinfocom's on face value, as the school usually produces great animation but more on the cute, humorous and conventional story side.
This is an amazingly good film for anybody doing a short film, even more for a bunch of students who have just graduated. It is a mix of live action and cgi. The quality of the animation, the characterization, the atmosphere (a sleek mix of minimal settings in pastel and cream colors), the cold-blooded plot, the silence of the film only interrupted by ambiance noises and the sound of a knife being sharpened, the Postman-always-calls-Twice sort of scene, and the ending are all great.
The story per se is nothing new, but the type of animation selected to narrate it, and the way the story is told are very contemporary. One might be tempted to say that this is another anthropomorphic animal story, but it is the contrary -- the human characters are depicted according to the animal their psyche and personality associates with. Thus, the wild boar is grumpy, easily irritable and violent; the snake is silent, timid and sneaky; the hare being a kind of rabbit, is slim and always in heat. Chaud Lapin, literally translates as hot rabbit, and precisely as horny devil.
I thought the story and the characters would have allowed and benefited from a longer footage, and the story could have started a bit before it does, and finished a bit after it does because, really, you cannot mate a snake unless you are a snake yourself or you'll be the dinner. A long feature film would be easily done from this film as the concept, story, and style are already designed!
I expect great things from these guys in the future.
This is an amazingly good film for anybody doing a short film, even more for a bunch of students who have just graduated. It is a mix of live action and cgi. The quality of the animation, the characterization, the atmosphere (a sleek mix of minimal settings in pastel and cream colors), the cold-blooded plot, the silence of the film only interrupted by ambiance noises and the sound of a knife being sharpened, the Postman-always-calls-Twice sort of scene, and the ending are all great.
The story per se is nothing new, but the type of animation selected to narrate it, and the way the story is told are very contemporary. One might be tempted to say that this is another anthropomorphic animal story, but it is the contrary -- the human characters are depicted according to the animal their psyche and personality associates with. Thus, the wild boar is grumpy, easily irritable and violent; the snake is silent, timid and sneaky; the hare being a kind of rabbit, is slim and always in heat. Chaud Lapin, literally translates as hot rabbit, and precisely as horny devil.
I thought the story and the characters would have allowed and benefited from a longer footage, and the story could have started a bit before it does, and finished a bit after it does because, really, you cannot mate a snake unless you are a snake yourself or you'll be the dinner. A long feature film would be easily done from this film as the concept, story, and style are already designed!
I expect great things from these guys in the future.
