ZA Furries

A few months ago, I added a short film called "The Maker" to the "Weird Part of Youtube" thread, and it's been bothering me ever since. To me, The Maker wasn't weird, it was beautiful, and I didn't like lumping it together with some of the other videos in there. I didn't have much of a choice at the time, though, since it definitely didn't fall under the "Lol Video" category. There was simply nowhere else to put it.

That's why I'm making this thread. I want to make a place for videos that aren't necessarily "funny" or "weird" but beautiful and thought-provoking, videos that touch deeper than the funnybone and stimulate our hearts rather than our gag-reflexes.

There are three videos I want to start off with. The first, as you've probably guessed, will be The Maker.

"Life is what you make it, and we are all Makers in this world."
~ Christopher Kezelos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDXOioU_OKM


The second video is "The Backwater Gospel". It has a unique, striking art-style and beautiful animation. It's about religion, but I'm confident we are all civil and mature enough to discuss its themes without deteriorating into unseemly arguments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVkDrIacHJM


Lastly, I'd like to share something a bit lighter. Depending on how you look at this video, it's either a cute story about the relationship between a cat and a bunny, or a commentary on society's intolerance of unconventional love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsWgrf3XLKQ

Are there any short films that hold a special place in your heart? Something that carries a message more powerful than simple images on a screen should be able to convey? Please, feel free to share.

I really liked The Maker too. We analysed a bunch of short films last term, and there were a while bunch of good ones.

One of the best ones was Myosis:

an animated 2d short about a corporate employee losing his lover because of his work. The lover can also be seen as his creativity being taken away from him as time goes on.

https://youtu.be/WImOE0Pwk3M

My favorite short would definitely be Disney's Feast, a story about a dog and his owner, their lives, and the meals they share. Utterly beautiful.

https://youtu.be/x7ARYCDna3E

My college has also produced a tonne of thought provoking short stories. In 3rd year you have to create a shortfilm, which is what I'm currently doing.
The college it's called The Animation School (no jokes) and they have a channel on YouTube with the same name, and all of our shortfilm are on there, if you guys are keen to see some local animation short films.

Well, I don't know about "short film" but I know a pretty good web miniseries, more like an animated comic, by Miles-DF

Backwater Gospel just became my whole reason for living... I LOVE THAT THING!!

Echo_W95 wrote:Myosis and Disney's Feast

The art in both of those was beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

I'm interested to hear what people think about this one. For some it might strike close to home, while for others it might be all about obsession gone too far.



In my opinion (Spoiler Alert): [ That kid was incredibly foolish, maybe even downright delusional. Getting lost in a fantasy is one thing, but when you can no longer distinguish it from reality it becomes a potentially life-threatening problem. ]

There is no "deep meaning" to this one (at least not that I can see), but it's still lots of fun.

I love that one. I remember it came on one of the NAG Mag dvd's and I absolutely loved it

So I watched most of the short films in this thread (The link to Feast no longer works ). I have a few thoughts... I'll start by talking about The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Lion. I'd be inclined to agree that losing sight of reality is dangerous. Knowing how to have fun is important, but it's also important to know when and how to stop. Also as soon as the boy went under the zoo fence, I was pretty sure that I knew it could only end badly.
I thought that Myosis, The Maker and The Backwater Gospel were all beautiful and thought-provoking in their own ways. I love stop-motion, and The Maker did it really well. The Backwater Gospel is an excellent glimpse into hypocrisy and fear, and how these things can tear communities apart. Its art style is gorgeous too, even in its portrayal of ugliness.
There She Is! might have been my favorite of the bunch though. Its art style is simplistic, but manages to convey quite a bit with it, and tackles some important issues in a way I really liked. I'll admit, I also have kind of a thing for interspecies romance... I think there is something both inherently beautiful and tragic in the idea. (I think I might be a hopeless romantic at heart)

Trace wrote:I'll admit, I also have kind of a thing for interspecies romance...

Hmm... Realized this could be misconstrued if taken out of context. To clarify, no, this is not in reference to The Topic That Shall Not Be Named. What I'm referring to is more in a fantasy setting. Anyway...

Trace wrote:There She Is! might have been my favorite of the bunch though. Its art style is simplistic, but manages to convey quite a bit with it, and tackles some important issues in a way I really liked. I'll admit, I also have kind of a thing for interspecies romance... I think there is something both inherently beautiful and tragic in the idea. (I think I might be a hopeless romantic at heart)

I cry every time! It's just so beautiful.
Interracial relationships are apparently very taboo in Korea, and that's what the creators were trying to address with There she Is.

Contrast wrote:I cry every time! It's just so beautiful.
Interracial relationships are apparently very taboo in Korea, and that's what the creators were trying to address with There she Is.

It really is beautiful. It gave me feels. It's cool to know about the background for it, and I love the use of metaphor.
It doesn't matter what others may say or do, in the end love conquers all.

Check out Timber and Die Young, by Vivziepop!
Timber for a short, sweet and meaningful story. Die Young for FURREHS!

https://youtu.be/gCusehQROC8

https://youtu.be/-PKNuZovuSw

Ooh, I love Vivziepop's stuff! I do really like her 'Die Young' video. Her webcomic is pretty great too.
Wait... I forgot to mention that in my list of webcomics!
Will have to check out the other video though.

Angel Dust from Zoophobia is the baest of baes! <3
*swoons*

Timber was really good. And I love pretty much every character in Zoophobia.
While we're at it, I'll highly recommend her animation to Owl City's 'Silhouette': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t47fADGOaxc
Something about the combination of the fantastic song and gorgeous visuals gets me teary-eyed.

Contrast wrote:

Shelter and La Maison en Petits Cubes were both wonderful.
Shelter especially made me tear up.
I will need to watch Buta eventually.

Trace wrote:

Contrast wrote:

Shelter and La Maison en Petits Cubes were both wonderful.
Shelter especially made me tear up.

Shelter pretty much wrecked me the first time I watched it. The animation is so beautiful and whimsical at first, but then you start to piece together the real story and it just tears your heart out.

Splicer-Fox wrote:Buta[/youtube]

I thought it was pretty interesting, but at the 20 minute mark it all fell apart for me. I could explain why, but I don't want to post any spoilers, and anyone who's watched the whole thing will probably understand what I'm talking about anyway. (This forum could really use one of those drop-down spoiler boxes.)

Thanks to the spoiler boxes, I can now explain what irritated me about Buta.

Spoilers about the final ten minutes of Buta:

The boat transformed into some kind of mech / robot, and I found that to be utterly ridiculous (and not just because of the giant pig-nosed dick that protruded from its crotch for the better part of a minute). For the entirety of the story they stayed mostly historically accurate to the technology available to them at the time (swords, candles, stuff like that), but then suddenly you have a ship transforming into a mech? This isn't some steam-punk alternate universe. It's supposed to be an anthropomorphic version of Japan set several hundred years in the past (I don't know exactly which period it takes place in [Buta seems to be a ronin or former samurai, so maybe the warring states period?], but I am almost positive it's based on an actual period in Japanese history, and I'm pretty sure they never had mechs back then). But anyway, what irritated me even more than the giant robot was the age-old cliche of the antagonists screwing themselves over with their own stupidity. Protagonists in a good story should win because they are clever, or skilled, or simply because they tried their best and persevered and earned a victory THROUGH THEIR OWN ACTIONS, not because the bad guys suddenly became super stupid and self-destructed. I hate it when that happens because it's such inexcusably lazy writing. "Oh, we need something for the climax here. Should we have the heroes do something clever and badass to win the day? Something they learned through their hardships and travels, perhaps? Nah, let's just have the baddies screw themselves over for no other reason than to hand over an easy win and get it done." That's what annoyed me the most. A protagonist should earn a victory, not have it handed to them on a silver platter.

I posted this to one of the music threads a while back, but I think it deserves a spot here with the short films as well because it's still a beautiful little story in its own right, not just a music video.



My favourite parts:

I love how they used the flower in this video. It starts with the woman putting the flower (which is representative of herself as a character) down on the coffin, indicating that, by losing the man she loved, she has lost a piece of herself as well. Later we see it again in the form of a red galaxy as the man rises up to the afterlife. The woman's face can be seen as a constellation attached to this galaxy, reaffirming that the flower is an integral part of how the man saw her in life. This reminds him of how much he loves her, and he can't bear to leave her behind. The third time we see this flower/red galaxy it acts as a portal through which he is reborn. He is literally passing through a symbolic representation of the woman he loves in order to search for her in his next life. Finally, the last time we see the flower it is back where it belongs, in the hair of the woman he loved so much that he turned down heaven so they could share another life together. That moment when they finally find each other again... it gets me right in the feels every time.

The art and animation in this is amazing. Just don't ask me what the hell is actually going on story-wise. >_>

Holly Shit! I love you even more Neill Blomkamp!

Trailer.


Oats Studios - Volume 1 - Rakka
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjQ2t_yNHQs

Oats Studios - Volume 1 - Firebase
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm0V24IEHao

Oats Studios - Volume 1 - God: Serengeti
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1_HfhtB5eo

That hit me right in the feels.

Leeward wrote: ↑Sun Nov 05, 2017 7:32 pm That hit me right in the feels.

It's called art.

Leeward wrote: ↑Sun Nov 05, 2017 7:32 pm That hit me right in the feels.

I admit I might have shed a manly tear of manliness at some point...

I know that one. I saw it years ago. Don't remember too much about it. Perhaps it's time for a re-watch.