The Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah kicked off this weekend and Eric is blogging live as he covers the best in the Short Film Program. Check back throughout the holiday weekend for reviews, links, and some of the actual shorts themselves posted right here! This blog is also a part of the live coverage over at DigitalContentProducer.com, where Eric works as an associate editor. Head on over there for a podcast with Michel Gondry (”Eternal Sunshine,” “Be Kind, Rewind”) and more…
This year, 45 of the 83 short films in the 2008 Sundance Film Festival are available at for viewing and/or download at iTunes, Netflix, and Xbox.com.
There is something to be said for a movie that can get across a wave of emotion, however slight, in just over a minute’s time. It will take me longer to write this capsule review than it will for you to watch Hermann Karlsson’s melancholy animated short simply titled Dog. What this Icelandic import (although Karlsson currently resides in Edinburgh, Scotland) lacks in running time, it certainly makes up for in feeling.
A muted color palette of mostly gray and white, Dog feels like an overcast winter afternoon. It looks like the director used old-fashioned animation techniques only— like maybe it was drawn on film or sketched on paper. In reality, Karlsson used a mixture of 2D computer-drawn animation and painted-cell animation to bring to life the story of a late, lamented dog and a decision that will haunt a boy forever.
Mat Elliot’s sparse piano accompaniment holds out each keystroke for maximum resonance while non-diagetic sound effects such as wind blowing and stereo-panned, crackling fire enhance the visuals. Karlsson’s inspired use of imagery has parallels to the story he’s telling, but he never falls into the trap of the two being too directly and literally related.
Karlsson prints his narrator’s words right on the screen, and the absence of any intelligible spoken words only adds to the film’s sorrowful mood. That is not to say, however, that Dog is without a sense of humor. One whimsical act could have made all the difference in the world to one person, and the film highlights the how valued one kind of companionship can be. It also illuminates the innocence of being young and how sometimes the smallest of details—normally forgotten— can loom the largest in a child’s mind.
Not bad for a minute.
To watch the entire film, click on Hermann Karlsson’s website here.
I loved DOG at the festival. I just wish I could get it to play on my computer.