Well, it was back out to the desert for me again! This time, for the inaugural Palm Springs International Animation Film Festival. Animation has always had a special place in my heart. I've loved animated films since I was a little kid. I can remember clearly all the different Pixar movies I saw growing up, like Toy Story, The Incredibles, Monster's Inc., and so many more. Animation is different from live action because it can transport us to worlds that are only able to be realized through animation. Many people think of animated films as just for kids or fun for the whole family. While those are the vast majority of types of animated films released, there are many more that tackle much more adult subjects. But, of the films I saw at this festival, they were almost entirely family friendly, and it was great to see so many parents taking their children to these screenings. With that said, here are some of my highlights:
Taking the Plunge is a short film about a young man about to propose to his girlfriend at the edge of a pier. Just as he is about to pull out the ring while she is looking the other way, he drops it through the floorboards and it falls into the ocean. Distraught, he does what anybody would do in that situation; he magically pulls out of his bag some scuba gear and dives in to go after it. Meanwhile, the girl has no idea what's happened or where he has gone off to. So, she decides to wait there for his return. Once in the water, the man befriends an octopus who will help him find the ring. For the next few minutes, they go on a short adventure looking for this ring, searching far and wide, and even trying to fend off a shark who appears to be king in these waters. Eventually the ring is found and all is good again and the man can set out to do what he originally had planned. This is a cute and sweet film that is sure to tug at the hearts of audiences and would be well placed to play before a Pixar film. Taking the Plunge is thoroughly entertaining.
Extinguished is a short film in which all the people in the film have cutouts in their chests where there is a little flame that ignites when someone has affection for another. Our main character is a man who lives alone in a building with an older woman next door. One day, a young woman shows up to visit her and he runs into her in the hall and is immediately swooned by her. He gets nervous and once she walks in the door with the older lady, his flame lights up and he gets embarrassed. Over the next few minutes of the film, all he can do is think about her and try to figure out how to make it not look like he likes her (making the little flame go out). This is the perfect film for anyone who's ever been in the beginning stages of a relationship. It shows the anxiety of having the butterflies in your stomach when you find someone you're attracted to and how awkward it can be in some cases. This film is all about that cute meet.
My favorite film in this romantic comedy block has to be The Wishgranter. There is a fountain in the main square of a small town that happens to be able to grant people's wishes when they throw coins into it. There is a guy running the fountain who is able to grant just about anything people wish for. When a young man and a young woman on opposite sides of the fountain throw their coins in at exactly the same time, they get stuck. They both wish to find love, but because the coins get stuck, the wish granter can't do his job. But he'll do whatever he can to make sure these two people stick around the fountain until he can fix the problem and bring them together. It seems to me that we often wonder if things happen by chance or if there is a rhyme or reason for things, and this film seems to show us that there sometimes is a reason things happen in the way they do. Similar to the first film I talk about here, The Wishgranter is an excellent film to play before a Pixar film. It's engaging and suspenseful (but has a happy ending).
The next block of short films I saw was called "Cool Stop-Motion Animated Shorts." Stop-motion can be extremely taxing and time consuming when making it, but is truly an amazing form of animation. Some of these films were purely entertaining, while some of them appeared to be critiques of our world today.
One of those films was Ethnophobia. With a nearly 15 minute running time, this was the longest film I saw at this festival. Not only was this a stop-motion animated film, but it was claymation too. The premise is this; there are three clans of people, the red clay people, blue clay people, and yellow clay people. They constantly fight over things like territory and who can claim to kill the large animal they go after in the beginning scene of the film. After the fighting, they apparently make peace with each other and have a big celebration. Some time later, new people are formed; green, orange, and purple. They all stick together in their own clan, while the red, blue, and yellow people stick to their original clans. Things are okay for a while, until the original clans decide to attempt to remake the new clan's people fit into their clans by changing their color, or casting them out of the society. The original clans are afraid of the new people taking over and fundamentally changing their society. Ethnophobia is a dark yet riveting film that helps explain some aspects of our world today; the fears some people have about an ever changing population landscape. It shows how divisive the world can be and how unaccepting of others it can be. It also show how in the end it may not matter if nuclear war breaks out (there is a scene in which the clans unleash massive weapons on each other that basically destroy the world). Ethnophobia is certainly the most powerful film I saw in this block, and perhaps of all the films I saw at this festival.
Not One of Us runs along the same lines as Ethnophobia. It's about the fear of others taking what you have. The film opens up on these three green clay people hanging out on a tiny island with an abundance of fruit on trees. Suddenly, three orange clay people come by and take over the island and kick the green people out. They horde as much of the fruit on the trees as they can and do their best to keep it all to themselves. People of other kinds and colors come by to try to ask the orange people to share some of it with them. Instead the orange people kick them out and attempt to ban them from ever coming back. It gets to be so much so, that they ban everyone of every kind except themselves from the island. Why? Because they're not orange. They build walls and defense systems to keep them separate from anyone who might come to the island as well. Eventually, two of the three orange people turn out to become other people, and the third one kicks them out too. The film ends with him sitting in what looks like a prison he built for himself to keep everyone out. He has basically trapped himself so he can stay safe from others. This is a film that seems to critique our society about what keeping people out really does. It is about the paranoia that others are coming with ill wills. This is a powerful film about what can happen when we are so afraid of others that we seal ourselves off from everyone because they are not one of us.
The last film I want to talk about is called Monsters of the Web. This is a film about a family losing a child to the internet. The internet is represented by a physical monster inside of a computer who lures kids into it to get lost. The film is only two minutes long, but it is a powerful two minutes. It shows us where we are headed in this age of connectivity, where kids would rather stay inside and play video games or surf the internet instead of going outside to do activities. Monsters of the Web is an insightful film to all of us that shows us how addictive these activities can be and how lost we can get in doing them.
Animated films have always held a special place in my heart. Perhaps this is because I took an animated filmmaking class once and have a little experience with animation; both computerized animation as well as claymation. So perhaps having done it myself is why I love animation. But I love it also because it is a different and refreshing way to tell a story. These films I saw at the festival are family friendly for the most part, but they tackle difficult and adult subjects as well. What amazed me about all but one of these films was that they had no dialogue. That adds to the challenge of filmmaking; to tell a story clearly without the aid of dialogue. These are all films that do it extremely well, leaving the audience to question nothing about the story and not leaving us confused at the end. I truly enjoyed this festival, and I look forward to hopefully spending more time there next year!
Image Source: www.psiaf.org
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