Cartoon Brew

FIRST FLIGHT

I had a first look at OVER THE HEDGE yesterday (thank you, Dreamworks) and it's not the 90 minute talk-fest, per the trailer, that Amid described yesterday. It's got appealing characters (particularly the Garry Shandling turtle), lots of slapstick action and a great score by Ben Folds.

They also screened a new seven minute short called FIRST FLIGHT. It's the first Dreamworks short not spun off from one of their hit features, and their first film not featuring an all star voice cast. In fact it's marvelously performed sans dialog! Directed by Cameron Hood and Kyle Jefferson, the story involves a harried office worker who misses his bus and ends up spending his morning teaching a baby bird to to fly. It's very cute.

With Pixar's ongoing shorts program, Disney's LITTLE MATCH GIRL, and now Dreamworks entering the shorts arena ... are the majors slowly returning to creating meaningful short films? With video iPods, online downloads, You Tube and animation podcasts booming, the short film hasn't been this popular since... I don't know... 1934?? Whatever it is, I'm all for it. Keep 'em coming!

UPDATE: Floyd Bishop points out: "I read your post on the Brew about the new short from Dreamworks. In it, you said it was the first Dreamworks short not spun off from one of their hit features. This is not entirely true. PDI/Dreamworks did the short film Fishing in 1999, which featured no dialog at all. It was a watercolor, non-photorealistic rendered piece about the man who catches so many fish, they turn into a wave and knock him over." Thanks, Floyd. I guess I should have said FIRST FLIGHT is the first short of the merged 2D/3D Dreamworks Animation studio in Glendale.

Posted by JERRY at March 14, 2006 05:40 PM