“In the Beginning” by Katie Wendt

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In the Beginning, a senior film made at RISD by recent grad Katie Wendt, recounts the Genesis creation myth with quirky cartoon touches and funny voice acting.

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  • http://www.sexymecha.com Hal

    Nice job on that one – that’s some great design and lip synch! RISD FAV FTW.

  • andrew

    Solid! Great work!

  • Thomas Hatch

    That was awesome!

  • http://www.taberanimation.com Taber Dunipace

    Loved it! The cell phone part just killed me! Nice casual tone throughout as well, something that’s really refreshing compared to the much more frantic chase-based shorts we’ve been getting recently.

  • http://www.lizziakana.com Lizzi Akana

    VBob as God! Amazing!

  • Yensid

    zomg! awesome project. good use of making me laugh…a bunch.

  • Jim Engel

    “Creation Myth”. Snotty as ever, Amid.

    • amid

      Wikipedia lists the genre for Genesis as “creation myth”. The description of the term: “While in popular usage the term ‘myth’ is often thought to refer to false or fanciful stories, creation myths are by definition those stories which a culture accepts as both a true and foundational account of their human identity.” It helps to educate oneself before hastily reaching wrong conclusions and insulting people, Jim.

      • http://2dwannabe.blogspot.com robcat2075

        Wikipedia is a pretty chancy place for “educating oneself”.

        The definitions of “myth” at dictionary.com leave only the barest wiggle room for the idea that a “myth” isn’t something false.

      • Josef

        I’m not arguing the myth part, but since anyone can edit Wikipedia, it’s not a creditable resource.

      • http://rutherferdpaws.blogspot.com Luke

        How about the Genesis story? Or The story of Genesis

      • Was my face red

        Creation myths are found in every religion and world culture. It IS the term most generally used for their comparative discussion and study unless that particulary myth happens to be the one you’ve decided to believe in as totally true in which case I guess you decide to get a bit uppity.

    • http://www.frankpanucci.com Frank Panucci

      Is Joseph Campbell “snotty”, too?

    • Donny

      Oh, sorry truth touched your little christian nerves.
      I don’t care what Wikipedia has to say about it (neither about the deffinition of one of millions of dictionaries), but based on the common usage of the word “myth”, myth is a specific culture’s story (among many) that pretends to show off as truth, whilst nobody knows if it really is.

      At some point, though, all myths can get BUSTED.
      While none (except Hawkings maybe, but I have yet to read “The Grand Design” ) has been able to bust the myth of a creating, or STARTING force, thre’s stuff in the MYTH (since it’s a STORY of the Christian community)of Genesis that has been EASILY busted.

      Earth wasn’t made in such a fleeting time.
      NO Animals popped up looking the way they are now from the start. Evolution is a FACT.
      Snakes DON’T talk.
      Rib woman? HAH!

      Even for a fairy tale, it’s whole story structure is lame, the redundancies and plotholes are everywhere, and the person who wrote it must have been really bored, and probably drugged.

      As for the short, it was a pretty cute, funny way to put it. I also really liked the way the rest of the deities were represented. I hope it’s a parody though (that’s the way I see it, correct me if I’m wrong), and not a doctrinating little toon.
      My favorite part was Jesus as a revel, “whatever”ing teen. He never really seemed to give a fuck. :)

      • http://none Barry Rodges

        Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out. Way to totally disprove Christianity there. You got us uppity Christians.

      • http://www.sexymecha.com Hal

        He kinda did Barry. Even though it would contradict the character, I think a Carpenters or maybe a NIN poster on his door was a missed opportunity… But now I’m just nitpicking. Sometimes we Christians need to have a sense of humor about these things.

      • http://none Barry Rodges

        Are you talking about Donny or the film? I think the film was great; no problems there. I’d be the first to agree that Christians need a sense of humor!

        I was just dismissing Donny’s “truths” listed above as perhaps one of the lamest attempts at disproving a worldwide religion I’ve ever seen…

    • Tim Schuit

      “Myth” is being generous.

      “Creation Fairytale” would have been more appropriate.

    • BR Inle

      From Mirriam Webster online – “a : a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon ”

      I am a Christian and the use of the world ‘myth’ here seems perfectly legitimate. It doesn’t chafe. Also, I really don’t expect or require (presumably) non-Christian animation bloggers to acknowledge the truth value of the story of Genesis.
      I’m sure Amid will be back to doing his usual troll thing soon, we can all jump on him then.

    • http://www.sexymecha.com Hal

      I love how she depicts all the deities, its like an invisible touch. Jim, Genesis is not only a video game system and a band but its also a creation myth. If you’re a Christian your faith may lead you to consider it unassailable truth, but that is subjective and doesn’t conflict with it being A CREATION MYTH. Wikipedia may be editable but it doesn’t matter – but nobody educated could successfully argue against Amid’s statement, never mind someone making a stupid reactive statement to Amid-bash. By God choose your battles wisely. Otherwise we’re just in a land of confusion.

  • doop

    Haha, that was great!

  • http://www.caricaturesbydave.com Dave Stephens

    AaaaaawwWwwsoOome!!!!!

    Bless you, Katie Wendt, for you were BORN to animate!

  • http://www.enigmation.de slowtiger

    Myth, what else? Myth is a certain kind of plot. Take it and make a film from it, tweak it to your taste.
    If that wasn’t a myth, would this film be a documentary?

    Nice film, though, some spots a bit too silent, but great gags in others (the ostrich!).

  • http://rutherferdpaws.blogspot.com Luke

    A parody would probably describe this better.

  • http://www.rauchbrothers.com Tim Rauch

    That was well designed, animated, directed and written. Trifecta plus one. Nice!

  • http://jessicaplummer.blogspot.com Jessica Plummer

    What a well designed film! Feels fresh and nice for a very commonly retold story. Awesome!

  • Geneva

    Super adorable! Very nice.

  • http://thatssokraven.livejournal.com/ Kelly Tindall

    Great stuff! Fun to watch; what more can be said?

  • tomm

    funny and nice designs too

  • Jessica Britton

    Nice design and use of simple color, great voice work and sound effects! Cute and funny, and certainly didn’t offend my faith as a Christian!

  • Matt

    Everything was great in that animation, I would love to see more by the people who worked on it. I think the subject made it that much better too, you take that same style and apply it to any “myth”(this is the term used regardless of your definition) and it would be great.

  • lola

    haha that was seriously awesome

  • Saturnome

    Very cool film and designs.

    I was reminded a bit of “La Création du monde” a French 1959 feature length animated film. It’s the same kind of humoristic retelling of the old story, only way more mild (sometimes way too much, it’s kind of naive) but the designs/colors are fun.

  • The Gee

    It is a fun short. I agree that the designs are fun and there are funny moments throughout.

    as for those getting caught up in the “myth” word…turn that cheek. it should be easy enough because there is a pantheon of (minor) deities present in the cartoon and they are doing what deities did when there was not much to do. haha.

    it might be best to focus on whether the short itself is just good or not or focus on if it is respectful or not rather than focus on how Amid described it. I mean, how often are you going to see a bible story playfully portrayed these days?

    More often than not these days these things (live action or animated somehow) are either bland, preachy or kind of disrespectful.

    So, if you can, enjoy the short, for Goodness’ sake.

  • Sorry but

    This is a great short no matter what religion you are

  • http://www.Roundtableanimation.com Joan Manuel

    THIS FILM IS REALLY NICE, THE DESIGN AND GAGS WERE REAL GOOD.
    I THINK SOME MUSIC COULD HAVE MADE IT EVEN BETTER ?

  • http://www.katiewendt.blogspot.com Katie

    Hi everyone, thank you for the comments! I hope that it inspires people to consider their similarities with others more than it drives them to consider their differences. I always get excited when people with normally very different world-views are able to find common ground in my project. Thank you again!

  • Vanessa

    <3 V-BOB!!! <3 fantastic! great design work and color. go RISD!