The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

How utterly gorgeous is this award-winning (Grand Prix at Annecy) steampunk style animation, which can be watched in its entirety on YouTube?
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From the accompanying description: “Nominated for an Oscar and for a BAFTA award, Jasper Morello is a short feature made in a unique style of silhouette animation developed by director Anthony Lucas and inspired by the work of authors Edgar Alan Poe and Jules Verne. In the frontier city of Carpathia, Jasper Morello discovers that his former adversary Doctor Claude Belgon has returned from the grave. When Claude reveals that he knows the location of the ancient city of Alto Mea where the secrets of life have been discovered, Jasper cannot resist the temptation to bring his own dead wife Amelia back. But they are captured by Armand Forgette, leader of the radical Horizontalist anti-technology movement, who is determined to reanimate his terrorist father Vasco.

As lightning energises the arcane machineries of life in the floating castle of Alto Mea, Jasper must choose between having his beloved restored or seeing the government of Gothia destroyed. Set in a world of iron dirigibles and steam powered computers, this gothic horror mystery tells the story of Jasper Morello, a disgraced aerial navigator who flees his Plague-ridden home on a desperate voyage to redeem himself.”

Its absolutely gorgeous looking animation work, reminding me a bit of Lotte Reiniger’s beautiful Adventures of Prince Achmed, which pioneered the use of silhouette animation (and is also widely considered the oldest surviving animated film) with a healthy dose of Steampunk (great animation and Steampunk? Irresistible combination for me). The full running time is over 26 minutes, so you will probably want to bookmark it to watch at your leisure after work. Kudos to the animators for putting the whole film online – I’ve said before how frustrating it is to read news of short animations winning awards but not be able to see more than a trailer or clip of them, unless you are lucky enough to catch a screening at a film festival, so it is a terrific treat to see the entire film on the web like this. (link via Boing Boing)