Review of the Year 2011: Animation

Animation is perhaps the most laborious of art forms. The processes involved are incredibly slow right from the start; find a concept, storyboard it, storyboard it again for good measure, produce an animatic, and that’s all before you even start making the final thing. We have a lot of respect for animators and their saint-like patience, especially when they produce stuff like this…

Back to the Start Johnny Kelly

We can all agree that advertising for fast food chains is almost universally crap. The smiley uniformed staff singing and dancing with their perfectly formed burgers laminated in plastic bear almost no resemblance to the icy reception and heap of half-rotten mulch you get on arrival at one of their establishments. So we were surprised, relieved and delighted when we saw Johnny Kelly’s recent campaign for Mexican chain Chipotle, which managed to make us immediately interested in a chain we knew nothing about and whole-heartedly buy into their environmentally friendly ethos. For this reason Back to the Start stands out from the crowd this year.
www.itsnicethat.com/articles/johnny-kelly-back-to-the-start-1

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared This Is It

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared plays out like a haunted episode of Sesame Street, it starts out friendly enough but quickly descends into an anarchic sprawl of meat and paint before finally warning us: “Never be creative again”. Don’t believe me? See for yourself.
www.itsnicethat.com/articles/this-is-it-dont-hug-me-im-scared

The Shrine/An Argument Sean Pecknold

Within about three seconds of this film starting you know you’re watching something very special indeed. The delicate colour palette and elegant movements all point to an incredible creative talent, while the stag protagonist has the same majesty as Bambi’s dad. A winning combination already. The addition of typically brilliant Fleet Foxes harmonies over the top cements this as one of the standout pieces of animation this year.
www.itsnicethat.com/articles/sean-pecknold-the-shrine-slash-an-argument