Cartoon Brew’s Student Animation Festival proudly presents Otzi by Evan Red Borja (School of Visual Arts). Borja’s film is highly imaginative, laugh out loud, and thought-provoking–and did we mention super entertaining. Borja uses an efficient line style, but doesn’t skimp on the animation, which is creative and perfectly suited to the style. The vocal track enhances the fun with Fleischer-like verbal mutterings.
Continue reading for comments from the filmmaker, Evan Red Borja:

THE IDEA
The story of Otzi came to me accidentally. It was the summer before my thesis year and I was restoring my vintage motorcycle. I was trying to replace the clutch cable. It wasn’t broken or anything, I just wanted to change it since it was a little rusty. Not knowing what I was doing, I accidentally broke an important piece inside the engine, which meant that I couldn’t shift through the gears. I was super bummed about the whole situation and really wished that I had a time machine to go back in time to when I didn’t mess around with my motorcycle. That’s when it hit me! This would be a perfect idea to start with for my thesis. I changed a few variables around and ended up replacing myself with a scientist/explorer/archeologist and changing the motorcycle into an ancient fossilized corpse. We’ve all had those times where we’ve made a mistake and wished that there was an UNDO button. Since I knew that the story would involve a time machine, I figured that it would be cool if it looped. Everything else just fell into place as I continued to work on it.