Bradford Animation Festival: MUTE.

 

Mute by Jobs, Joris & Marieke was the first thing I saw at the Bradford Animation Festival, and it set the bar quite high for the rest of the week. I thought this was a great short, and I'm not the only one who must have thought so, because the whole room was in stitches over this animation. For me, it was just because it was so unexpected. I really wasn't expecting the animations to be shown at BAF to be weird like this, and never have I been so wrong...

But more on that later.

There was just so much I liked about this animation, but I think the story is what did it for me, and how well the characters helped tell this story. I thought the idea of the characters not being able to talk and open their mouths was brilliant, as well as how imaginative the producers were at showing how much of an inconvience this was for them. I thought the animation was going to get very dark, very quick as the baby was headed for the knife, but instead the short took an unexpected turn and it just got plain weird, but oh so funny. I especially liked all the little jokes that were thrown into the story, an example being that the word they are trying to guess at the beginning of the animation, turns out to be 'Mule' even though it is suggested that it is going to be otherwise. Well, Mute.

I also liked the style of the animation. It has been created in 3D using the computer, and I think it has been done brilliantly. I don't really know how to explain why I like it, other than everything looks so smooth and squishy, yet objects still look realistic. The carrot that the lady is chopping at the beginning of this is a good example of what I mean. everything just looks very 'friendly', especially because of the bright colours they have used. It makes what the characters are doing to themselves seem less weird, just because of how it has been presented, as well as how they are reacting.

All in all it is a very cheery and bizarre animation that I thoroughly enjoyed.