Web Animation Watch: Return Of The Waves, Mouse Trapped, Change Return and More
Welcome back, web wanderers. Looking for the best in online animation? Then wander no more, as AFA's Web Animation Watch will round up the latest and the greatest for you. You're welcome. This week we have a mouse on the run, a pig with human arms and a slice of the (web) swinging sixties.
If you've made something- be it a web short, web series episode, student film, music video or something else- you think would be a good fit for a future column, or if you've just found something cool, please drop us a line.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales 60's Theme
Gamers are getting excited about the new Spider-Man: Miles Morales game coming to the new PlayStation 5 and not so new PlayStation 4 consoles. This video from animator illbedarnd mashes up the new game with the old-school sixties Spidey cartoon (complete with the classic theme song). "Hand-drawn frame by frame to give it that warm and fuzzy 60's feel."
The Return Of The Waves [ "Le Retour Des Vagues"]
★PICK OF THE WEEK★ New from this year's crop of graduation films from Paris's prestigious Gobelins animation school is this lovely, reflective piece. A young man returns to his home town to find it literally frozen in time. A distinctive visual style and an eerie mood makes for a superb film. Look out for blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to Japanese filmmakers Hayao Miyazaki and Satoshi Kon who influenced the makers of this short, without slavish imitation. In French with subtitles (make sure to turn them on!) for what little dialogue there is.
Mouse Trapped
The cat and mouse set-up is one of the oldest cliches in animation. But you've never seen in quite like this. For a start, there are no cats to be seen- in this case, the Mama mouse is on the run from a snake and a ferocious dog. But it's the tone that really puts the twist on Gabe Hordos's film. Rather than slapstick fun, this plays out like a thriller- after all, it is a matter of life and death for the tiny rodent and her litter of babies waiting at home. This apparently dates back to 2015 but has not been available until now.
Change Return
It's Black Mirror meets Brazil in this blackly comic dystopian sci-fi from Rob Findlay. Set in a subterranean city where duties such as health care, law enforcement and community services are delegated to vending machines and their smiling robot drones. One fisherman decides to try and exploit the system with some truly bizarre results.
Gotcha | Bump Of Chicken (Official Pokemon Music Video)
This week's music video pick comes from the wonderfully named Japanese band Bump Of Chicken, whose song Acacia was selected by The Pokemon Company to feature in this Offical Pokemon music video, Gotcha. Poke-fans will love this trawl through Poke-history that features numerous Pokemon and their trainers in a tribute to the beloved franchise. It features a much wider variety of styles than is typically seen in Pokemon animation, so it gives an interesting spin to the whole thing.
⏭ WEB ANIMATION WATCH ARCHIVE
