Basically, better light replication equals realism. “Bunny” is memorable not so much for its elegiac, rose-tinted storyline as it is for the technical wizardry behind it, which employs advances in radiosity that allow the CGI animation to look far more realistic than, say, Pixar's old standby Tin Toy. The 1998 Academy Award winner, “Bunny,” from Blue Sky Studios and Chris Wedge, is another keeper, the tale of an elderly hare and her battle with the tiny moth that invades her kitchen one night. Recalling German Expressionist films of the Twenties, complete with dank shadows and off-kilter angles, this brief tale of - yup - a guy with long arms, resonates long after its four-minute running time is over. Also of note is the truly bizarre (and oddly touching - an emotional pairing that is reiterated throughout the collection and is common to animation in general) “L'Homme aus Bras Ballants (Man With the Pendulous Arms)” from Laurent Gorgiard of France. As a metaphor for imperialistic greed and rampant nationalism, it's pretty obvious, but the edgy animation and overall somber mood of the seven-and-a-half minute piece are undeniable. It's easy to see why this scored high points at the tail end of the Reagan-Bush Red-scare decade: Animated clay figures, clad only in gray overcoats and sporting grimly expressionless eyes, battle for territory while perched perilously atop a flat plane, floating in a void. Among the highlights are the German “Balance,” by Cristophe and Wolfgang Lauenstein, which took the 1989 Academy Award for Best Animation Short Film. Like nearly all animation fests, this one's a somewhat mixed bag, albeit one that favors computer animation and surreality over more traditional forms (though pretty much everything is represented in one form or another). Not to be confused with S&M's far more earthy Sick and Twisted festival, this is a more mainstream group of shorts, though in the world of animation the word “mainstream” has a much looser connotation than elsewhere, natch. Wedge's acting credits consist almost solely of voicing Scrat, a scrawny character from the "Ice Age" films-the job consists of little more than grunting and squeaking, and task that he's undertaken numerous times, including in the 2012 sequel "Ice Age: Continental Drift." Aside from the original "Ice Age," Wedge's feature directorial work includes the 2005 metal-filled comedy "Robots," and he spent years developing the fittingly named fantasy "Epic.Seventeen semi-new offerings are compiled in perennial faves Craig “Spike” Decker and Mike Gribble's ongoing animation fest. The studio has created special effects for a handful of major titles, such as the critically acclaimed martial arts film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and, more importantly, has produced Wedge's feature films, including the extremely popular "Ice Age" prehistoric franchise (and its many spinoffs). The effort paid off, both with an Academy Award (Best Short Film, Animated) and a tremendous amount of industry credibility. The animation was courtesy of Blue Sky Studios, which Wedge co-founded. Early in his career, he showed off his skills as a scene programmer on the 1982 Disney sci-fi classic, "Tron." He subsequently worked primarily as a director of animated shorts and feature films, writing and helming the 1999 animated short "Bunny," a surreal and touching look at death as a transformation.
Chris Wedge studied film at the State University of New York at Purchase, earning a BFA, and later studied computer graphics and art education at the Ohio State University, earning an MA.
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