CD Giveaway - 33Miles, "One Life"
Ends Aug 4, 2010
The country-pop sound established in their eponymous debut is a mainstay for this album as well, and even adds a little more southern flavor.
CD Giveaway - Phil Wickham, "Cannons"
Ends Aug 3, 2010
With an opening shot that hits the sonic pinnacle, this collection of spiritual Brit pop/rock is heavily influenced by Keane, Travis, Coldplay, and U2.
Rating: Country: USA Release Date: May 23, 2006 Distributor: Blend Films Grade: A-
Patrick Smith is an animator who creates his frames the old school way: he hand draws them, saving any computer animation work for coloration only. His composition is somewhere between Ted Dawson's Spooner and Berke Breathed's Bloom County. MTV fans are already acquainted with his work as director for the Beavis & Butthead spinoff, Daria, and his animated short works are a crowd pleaser at film festivals.
Blend Films has compiled five of Smith's shorts onto this single DVD, which also includes optional commentary by Smith on each short, and a thirteen minute interview with Smith conducted by AnimatorsUnite.com. Presented in reverse chronological order from their production dates, they ironically seem to increase in complexity, style, and message, while simultaneously remaining consistent in quality and draftsmanship.
Puppet (2006) With little in the way of backgrounds, and a raw pencil-sketch appearance in places, we see a young man create himself a sock puppet -- who then turns evil and drives the man into bouts of self-inflicted misery. The uncontrollable hand soon creates a second sock puppet, and the two of them force their human host on a nightmare run from pain he can't escape, dragging him through a torturous path that includes hornets' nests and jagged cliffs. The ending on this one was a nice surprise as well.
Puppet: Terror in the face of a sock.
Handshake (2004) Far more colorful than "Puppet", there's a lot of metaphor in "Handshake". The visuals involve a man and woman meeting at a bus stop and introducing themselves by a handshake. But their hands melt together, and soon their intertwined with each other like two melting bars of taffy, each trying to extricate themselves from the other. It's a statement about relationships gone wrong, sped up and presented in a microcosm. Interestingly, the female of the pair finally absorbs the male into herself, making her free of him although he's never really gone. And after such a nightmare, we're left pondering her course of action when a new man enters the scene.
Moving Along (2004) Easily the least interesting of the set, "Moving Along" is nothing more than a music video for hip-hop group, The Planets. Faceless gray flannel cloth men "move along" to the music, sometimes violently. Otherwise, there's not much to say about this one.
Delivery (2003) Inspired by Smith's relationship growing up with his older brother, this muted piece finds two brothers living together in a situation where it's apparent one does all the work. When a delivery man arrives with a box, the slacker brother becomes interested in its contents, and takes it from the other by violence which is delivered with surprising understatment. The battle of the brothers escalates until one is finally down for good. But just what are the contents of the mystery box, and was it ultimately worth the strife?
Drink: Release your inner supermodel.
Drink (2000) This final piece is perhaps the most visually inventive. When a young man comes across a mystery pitcher, much like Alice in Wonderland's infamous "Drink Me" bottle, he uncorks it and pours himself a drink. Immediately, another person erupts out of his mouth, shedding the old body like snakeskin. This is quickly followed by a repeating sequence as, like Russian dolls, each new body opens to reveal yet another, ending with the original before they once again swallow each other in reverse sequence. Smith regards this piece as an exercise in character design, as all these various personalities that existed within the original character are revealed after one simple drink.
With the exception of "Moving Along", all the pieces are delivered without dialogue, which serves to make them more powerful as the message relies more on action than narrative. Through the bonus interview with AnimatorsUnite.com, we learn that Smith has a bare-bones staff, with after-effects generally taking four days once a year of hand-animating is completed. Smith also alerts fans to a new short he's working on, which will include dialogue, and is evolving out of interviews conducted with prison inmates.
