Story from North America | Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation

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Story from North America

December 19, 2008 3:26 am

When I presented my 2008 animation picks last week, I didn’t offer up any student shorts on my list. That’s not because I didn’t see any good student work during this past year. Far from it, I saw quite a few nice pieces. Nothing blew me away though to the extent that I had to include it on the list. That’s all changed now because I’ve just seen Story from North America, an awesomely excellent film animated by Kirsten Lepore and Garrett Davis, with music written and performed by Davis. Created at the Maryland Institute College of Art, it is a combination of surprisingly poignant song-driven storytelling and some of the most crazily inventive and funny hand-drawn animation I’ve seen in recent times. The short may have less polish and sheen than other student films, but its originality and creative use of the animation medium makes it one short I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

(Thanks, Kelly Toon)

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37 comments posted in Shorts, Student

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12/19/08 4:00am	Eddie White says:
	wow. That was very cool. So unique and i love its analog rawness.
12/19/08 5:36am	Matt Jones says:
	Insane! Very funny & inventive.
12/19/08 6:00am	tom says:
	See, this is why we need the Brew. I would probably never have seen this little gem without you guys keeping watch for us. Thanks, Amid!
12/19/08 7:01am	Saturnome says:
	That was fantastic! The animation was great, the father is fun and the subject is good!
12/19/08 8:06am	Fooksie says:
	It was nice for a student film, but I just couldn’t watch the whole thing. Good job.
12/19/08 8:10am	victor says:
	Hey!! the song is cool!!! Could you tell me the chords??
12/19/08 8:21am	Fran Krause says:
	Awesome. The part where the musician turns the page is the kind of inventiveness I would love to see in every film.
12/19/08 8:33am	Elliot Cowan says:
	Lovely and too long!
12/19/08 9:12am	pizzaforeveryone says:
	i saw this last week–it’s great! it really grew on me throughout.
12/19/08 9:35am	Paul Noth says:
	I loved this.
12/19/08 9:38am	Chris Webb says:
	Terrific vocal performance from the father. Lots of fun!
12/19/08 9:39am	Nick Cross says:
	Absolutely fantastically excellent! Thanks for that mid-winter holiday treat!!!
12/19/08 10:02am	Tom Pope says:
	Triple wow! One of the best shorts I’ve seen in a very long time. Great underlying message for our times too.
12/19/08 10:26am	Kelly Toon says:
	Oh I am SO glad you posted this! I have had bits of the song stuck in my head for two days now.
12/19/08 10:47am	Michel Gagne says:
	Hehehe… that made my morning. Crazy funny. This student film gets an A.
12/19/08 11:21am	Eddie Fitzgerald says:
	Haw! Very nice! Pencil on paper animation is a terrific and under-rated medium.
12/19/08 11:48am	Kirsten Lepore says:
	Wow! Thanks so much for posting this, Amid! I’m honored! :)
12/19/08 12:21pm	red pill junkie says:
	Not to criticize your pick—because it’s definitely an incredible short— BUT, technically it couldn’t qualify for the list of your 2008 animation piece, because it was made in 2007. But Hell, it’s your list so I guess you write the rules ;-) Thanks again for posting this.
12/19/08 12:55pm	gary Doodles says:
	I laughed and then I laughed some more. Great little flick!
12/19/08 1:53pm	Emily says:
	awesome. a new classic.
12/19/08 2:49pm	Tim Rauch says:
	that was great.
12/19/08 6:30pm	Chris McD says:
	“Finally you’re becoming human!” Haha! I love this cartoon. There are a load of inventive choices made in the animation. The song and performance are good, and the father part is the best with a very “Beat Happening” sound that matches the rough visuals. Everything from the designs, movement, lyrics and concept are full of perfect quirks.
12/19/08 8:48pm	David Nethery says:
	“Finally you’re becoming human” . Maybe that should be our slogan for hand-drawn animation . So nice to see some animation that is warm ,and artistic , and flawed (i.e. not perfectly “tweened” to death) , and human. Long live weird and wonderful animation magic. (drawings that live) .
12/20/08 12:22am	emily's friend says:
	Whoah. i think i met garrett davis at a party once. Good chap.
12/20/08 12:33am	Chris says:
	Loved it.
12/20/08 2:12am	Benjamin De Schrijver says:
	Oh this was just absolutely wonderful. That’s what happens when talented people do something THEY want to do, and not attain to what they’ve seen other people do.
12/20/08 9:45am	Alex says:
	That was fantastic. (I still heartily endorse spider genocide, though)
12/20/08 12:03pm	Radrappy says:
	That was entertaining but a little overly preachy for my tastes.
12/20/08 9:28pm	Fred Cline says:
	What kind of drugs do Kirsten and Garrett use? (…and where can WE get some?)
12/21/08 4:25am	rodan says:
	loved the cartoon..though it is a bit freaky…. The spider was cuter than the kid or the dad…. I wanted the spider to sing and the kid to get squashed… The dad looked like some biker leather bear from the Castro… (no offense intended to any biker leather bears here)
12/21/08 5:46am	21st century man says:
	Radrappy says, “That was entertaining but a little overly preachy for my tastes.” That is the hell of living in this day and age: that something so clearly absurd - and stated by the filmmaker to be so! - can be taken as an actual reflection of an actual person’s actual beliefs. What a world, what a world.
12/21/08 8:07am	tomm moore says:
	loved it. Thanks!
12/21/08 3:16pm	Chris L says:
	Loved it. Great song, and really fun animation. The art style reminds me of some of the weirder stuff you might see in a Fantagraphics book. And heck, whether it’s “preachy” (serious), “absurd” (not), or a little of both, the message is good.
12/23/08 1:53pm	i'm enlarged says:
	“And heck, whether it’s “preachy” (serious), “absurd” (not), or a little of both, the message is good.” So, the “message” is good, despite being indiscernible. I guess you are just a fan of didacticism in general. And absurd now = “not serious”. Got it. You sir, must make your parents proud to have such a genius in the family.
02/25/09 3:41am	Leonardo Omezzolli Kop says:
	too cool!!! this video is very interesting and beautiful: the animation and the song, WOW!!!! Could you tell me the chords of this song?
06/10/09 3:01pm	bolw says:
	i don’t think it’s preachy. if the animators wanted to get preachy they’d do something more over the top than the story of a boy and a spider. it’s simple and sweet, and clearly not designed to ’spread an important message to the otherwise oblivious people!’.
10/28/09 8:15am	Shizzlesquid says:
	You are not getting it, its a reflection to the united states policy to attack before knowing its a thread… the bomb in which the old guy turns is another indicator for this

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