We are huge fans of animation here at Shorts That Are Not Pants, and so it’s with great pleasure we can share that we will be co-presenting a program of short films at this year’s Toronto Animation Arts Festival International. It’s on Saturday June 14th at 1:45pm at George Brown College (Waterfront Campus) 2nd Floor Cinema, and it’s called Straight Up Toons. Here are some details about the films in the lineup:
AIN’T NO FISH
Directors: Tom Gasek, Miki Cash | UK/USA 2013 | 3:30
Ain’t No Fish is a short stop motion animated film that is set to the music and lyrics of Sigman and Russell and performed by Hoagy Carmichael. It’s an ‘easy-go-lucky’ song about fishing and why ‘Some Days There Just Ain’t No Fish’. Animated seals in the Arctic sing the show tune and it’s slowly revealed in the background why there ‘Ain’t No Fish.’ Despite the upbeat attitude of the seals the garbage and oil industry that pervades the sea provides the answer. The film is capped with an appropriate quote from the great explorer and oceanographer Jacques Cousteau.
BLESS YOU
Director: David Barlow-Krelina | Canada 2013 | 2:44
A man takes the subway. Inside his brain, a countdown clock hits zero and a little person prepares for lift-off. The man sneezes.
CRIME: THE ANIMATED SERIES
Directors: Alix Lambert, Sam Chou | USA 2013 | 20:03
From bank robbers to cops to victims to observers, Crime: The Animated Series explores how crime affects us all. The series is dark, compelling, heartbreaking, and yes, sometimes funny. Always surprising and intimate, it presents a collection of unique perspectives on a subject that has captivated us throughout time.
DRUNKER THAN A SKUNK
Director: Bill Plympton | USA 2013 | 3:30
An adaptation of a poem by Walt Curtis about a cowboy town that torments the local drunk.
FEED YOUR CREATIVE BRAIN
Director: leftchannel | USA 2013 | 0:51
motion is a national event celebrating creativity in motion — the TED Talks of our industry if you will — and they selected us to create the opening titles for the 2013 show. They gave us the best brief possible: Do whatever you want, just make it cool – we had full creative reign. Obviously, we instantly thought of tentacles… and the concept grew from there.
HIGH NOON KABOOM
Director: Brett Jubinville | Canada 2013 | 0:45
The Old West, a ghost town, and two gunmen stand off in an epic showdown. Who has the upper hand? Who will win?
HIGH WOOL
Directors: Moritz Mugler, Nikolai Maderthoner | Germany 2013 | 2:22
A fratricidal war in a town made of strings.
JUNKYARD
Director: Hisko Hulsing | Belgium/Netherlands 2012 | 17:49
A man is being robbed and stabbed by a junkie. In that last second before he dies, a youth friendship flashes before his eyes. He and and his bosom-friend grew apart, when the latter was being drawn more and more into a misty world of drugs and criminality under influence of a lowlife dealer who lives with his father on the junkyard in their neighbourhood.
LUMBERJACKED
Director: Joel Mackenzie | Canada 2014 | 2:44
A reformed lumberjack must harness the power of NATURE in order to defeat an 8-bit mutant wasp monster that is destroying his friends and his home.
ME, MARIONETTE
Director: Graham Carter | UK 2012 | 3:30
Director and designer Graham Carter’s beautifully imaginative illustrations and worlds come to life in a trio of nostalgic stories culminating in a final piece showcasing the journeys of spacemen, samurais and explorers following an invite to a secret finale. Me, Marionette takes inspiration from the story of Pinocchio and the recent birth of Graham’s first child,exploring what he imagines his son’s future to be, the world and influences that surround him and the person he will become.
MONKEY RAG
Director: Joanna Davidovich | USA/UK 2013 | 3:45
Monkey Rag is a traditionally animated throwback to the musical cartoons of yore. Inspired by the thumping, riotously fun music of the Asylum Street Spankers, Mitzi pursues a disaster of her own making in this richly coloured world where reason is overrated. Mitzi may be barking up the wrong tree, but she also knows that when it comes to love, sometimes you just gotta give a little bit of what you got.
MR. HUBLOT
Director: Laurent Witz, Alexandre Espigares | France/Luxembourg 2013 | 11:43
Mr. Hublot lives in a world where characters made partially of mechanical parts, driving huge vehicles, rub shoulders with each other. A world where the giant scale of machines and the relentless use of salvaged materials reign supreme. A withdrawn, idiosyncratic character with OCD, Mr. Hublot is scared of change and the outside world. His solution: he doesn’t step foot outside his apartment! The arrival of the dog Robot Pet will turn his life upside down: he has to share his home with this very invasive companion…
THE RACE
Director: Jacques Khouri | Canada/USA 2013 | 2:30
Produced with a graphic flair and text, this piece is the classic tale of the Tortoise and the Hare with a key difference; the Hare has four legs while the tortoise has none.
STICK OUT
Director: Anthony Farquhar-Smith | UK 2013 | 1:24
Sometimes life is not about the destination. It is about the journey.
YELLOW STICKY NOTES | CANADIAN ANIJAM
Director: Jeff Chiba Stearns | Canada 2013 | 7:40
15 of Canada’s most highly acclaimed independent animators have come together to create one animated film. Yellow Sticky Notes | Canadian Anijam is an innovative and collaborative approach to animation filmmaking and unites animators from Vancouver to Halifax, and all places in between, to self-reflect on one day of their lives using only 4×6 inch yellow sticky notes, a black pen and animation meditation. Featuring animation from the original Anijam creator Marv Newland along with Oscar® winners Alison Snowden and David Fine and Academy Award® nominees Cordell Barker, Janet Perlman, Chris Hinton, and Paul Driessen. Other award-winning animators, Jeff Chiba Stearns, Jody Kramer, Howie Shia, Jonathan Ng, Lillian Chan, Malcolm Sutherland, Joel Mackenzie, and Louise Johnson round out the ‘anijammers.’
Tickets are $15 and are available online or at the door. Use the promo code PARTNER2014 to save 10% on tickets and passes bought online!
P.S. Two films we featured in April are also part of TAAFI’s lineup this year. Blackout will be part of the Student Shorts screening and The Missing Scarf is included in the Shorts 3: Hilariously Strange & Incredibly Dark lineup.