Web Animation Watch: Breathe, Indentity Crisis, Already Dead and More

 

Welcome back to the first editionWeb Animation Watch for a new year! Web Animation Watch brings you the best in online animation: independent shorts, student films, commissioned films, music videos and more!

If you have created something you would like to see featured here, or if you're just a fan who has found something cool- drop us a line. 

Check out the full Web Animation Watch archive.

 

 

Identity Crisis

This excellent graduation film directed, written and animated by Nat Nichols takes us to a future where advanced cyborgs and androids are just an everyday part of life. It follows a 'bot trying to buy the perfect gift for his loved one but gets a bit of a surprise when he sees wanted posters featuring his own face. The short manages to create an impressively evocative futuristic world, all in under six minutes. On this strength, Nichols may well be a filmmaker to watch.

 

 

Don't Yawn 

This short by Nebilihood is shorter than what we typically feature on WAW, but we just couldn't resist. Featuring a fun sketchy cartoony style and a very simple premise, it makes us laugh and left us hungry for more stuff in the same style, just maybe a bit longer. And if you can watch it without having to stifle a yawn yourself, then you're tougher than we are!

 

Breathe

Using a variety of animation techniques, this campaign film from Human Rights charity Amnesty International Africa is made to highlight how the pandemic has exacerbated problems facing the most vulnerable in society, particularly children. It's extremely effective in carrying its message and is exquisitely made. The film is directed and produced by Marc Silver and written by Elin Kelsey.

 

 

Juice WRLD | Already Dead

There is a long-standing cultural connection between Hip-Hop and East-Asian Culture. Ever since The Wu-Tang Clan showed up on the season, many hip-hop artists and fans have expressed their love for kung-fu movies, samurai movies and increasingly recently anime. In this new music video for Juice WRLD, director Steve Cannon reimagines the artist as a samurai locked in a battle to the death with a rival. The art style doesn't seek to exactly replicate anime, but producer Grade A Films finds something of a style of its own that creates a kinetic and captivating hybrid of cultures.

Ask A Cat Omnibus

We have featured Charles Brubaker and his studio Smallbug's work several times before, and have highlighted the way he captures the classic "newspaper comic strip style", making it feel like a relation to Peanuts and its ilk. This new release is a compilation featuring all the episodes of his Ask A Cat series.