OIAF 2011 Shorts Competition Five Review

Sep 23, 2011
Dominic von Riedemann

: an image from Guard Dog Global Jam - image copyright 2005 Bill Plympton

Which cartoons in the Ottawa International Animation Festival Shorts Competition 5 were awesome and which were awful? Find out here.

The Ottawa International Animation Festival's Short Competition 5 is considered the most populist of the five competition blocs in that it features more films that will appeal to the wider animation fanbase. Therefore you see a lot more comedies, music videos and new releases from popular directors (more on that later) in this group.

So which shorts got the biggest pop from yours truly, and which fizzled? Find out below.

Ottawa International Animation Festival Short Competition 5: The Awesome . . .

Once again, those pesky high schoolers are unleashing awesome animated shorts on us poor plebeians. Andy London & Peter Ahern's Lil' Aliens (USA) shows us life on other planets in the way only little kids can imagine. It's so cute you'll rot your teeth, but who cares when it's this good?

Michael Langan's Heliotropes (USA) illustrates a gorgeous poem by Brad Christian showing that humanity's biggest drive is simply to stay in the light.

Indie animation legend Bill Plympton allowed a bunch of artists to play with his classic short Guard Dog in the hilarious Guard Dog Global Jam (USA). It's Plympton, it's Guard Dog revisited; what more do you need?

Martin Thoburn & Matti Adoma's Frames (Germany, USA, Estonia) is a cool little piece about a character who escapes one frame only to find himself bound in countless others. Smartly done.

Okay, not all Estonian animation is endlessly turgid and occasionally misogynistic: Sünnipäev [Birthday] is a 40-second promo piece for the Estonian Ornithology Association. It's the Association's 90th birthday, and the birds want a piece of the action. Hilarious.

Speaking of parties, LAIKA Entertainment - yep, the folks behind Coraline - offer an innovative promo piece for Planters Peanuts: Mr. Peanut deals with a crasher at his Holiday Party in inimitable fashion.

David Buob's Das Haus [The House] (Germany) is a clever and fun short, about a girl trying to care for her grandmother, that got a little repetitive at points. A little more editing would have made this far stronger.

Ironically, PES' The Deep (USA) could have been longer. A piece showing metal tools coming alive in the deep ocean had enough that it could have easily run 3 times its 1:38 length.

Everyone knows Head Gear Animation's Milk Dots (Canada) promo spots, so I don't need to tell you how bizarre and fun they are.

Masanori Okamoto's music video for Ho-Ho's song This Message Is Boiling Hot (Japan) featured some great images and imagination but the song itself sounded like a reject for the old Donkey Kong arcade game.

"Well played!" laughed an audience member while watching Joost Lieuwma's Things You'd Better Not Mix Up (Netherlands) a comedy showing why chainsaws make lousy ice cream cones, and vice versa.

Finally, Paul Driessen returns with the riotously absurd Oedipus (Canada), a spoof of the ancient Greek myth featuring cameos from classic NFB animated characters.

. . . The Awful . . .

The blurb for Atsushi Wada's Haru No Shikumi [The Mechanism of Spring] (Japan) "tries to depict the excitement spring brings." In that case, spring must be a very boring time.

Frédérick Tremblay's Blanche Fraise (Canada), the story of two humanistic rabbits trying to survive in a dying wood, started losing interest around the 5 minute mark. Unfortunately, the short runs for nearly 17 minutes.

Andy & Carolyn London's music video for Vetiver's Wonder Why (USA) had a great concept but didn't go far enough in executing its vision. It's a shame because the song was really good.

Not much happened in Caleb Wood's Stay Home (USA), the story of a cat and dog . . . staying home.

Andy Fedak's Orange County Surreality (USA) had high-falutin' ambitions but simply wasn't compelling.

. . . And the Awe-Inspiring

There were many great contestants for Best in Show but Guard Dog Global Jam simply stood above the rest. The original short is a classic, and this revisitation just made a great thing even better.