Animation Express (Shorts/Canada/Image Blu-ray)

 

Picture: B     Sound: B-     Extras: B-     Shorts: B

 

 

Over the years, it has been one of the occasional pleasures to see the short works of filmmakers and animators worldwide.  That has constituted several compilation DVDs over the years, including Academy Award winners, but Animation Express is the first such set on Blu-ray and the improvement in playback makes all of them even more entertaining.  This extensive selection of recent productions comes from the National Board of Canada and includes various hand drawn works, stop motion animation, rotoscoping and some live action work mixed into animation.

 

The back of the case has two lists of shorts, including one listed as “Bonus Short Films”, but they were mixed into the ‘main’ shorts.  The ‘main’ list includes:

 

Madame Tutli-Putli

Farming Game

Hungo

Rosa Rosa

Rains

Retouches

Subservience

Spare Change

The Spine

The Man Who Slept

How People Got Fire

Robes Of War

Drux Flux

Sleeping Betty

The Necktie

Come Again In Spring

HA’Aki

Here & There

Flutter

Engine 371

Invasion Of The Space Lobsters

Sainte Barbe

Paradise

Vive la Rose

Land Of The Heads

Runaway

 

The shorts tagged as ‘Bonus’ include:

 

Pimp My Boat

At Home With Mrs. Hen

Nightmare At School

Cot Cot

Ryan

Stationary

Terra

The True Story of Sawney Beane

Roots

The Danish Poet

Uncle Bob’s Hospital Visit

The Real Place

Peggie Barker Four Phases

 

 

Needless to say this all proves how vital and prolific Canada is and has been in the shorts field for a long time.  When you watch the 1080p digital High Definition image on each (ranging from 1.78 X 1 to 2.35 X 1), you get more of the impact on them, even when the picture is not always great.  When it is (and it usually is), you feel like you are getting more of the intent of the director and it is bound to give all who see it this way the same experience only theatrical film bookings did before.  You realize none of this is slight or trivial, but a set of ambitious films from people who really care about what they are putting on screen.  Let’s hope this is the first of many collections on Blu-ray.

 

Though there is a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) logo on the package, the specs say (and disc confirms) that all the shorts are Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes.  At their best, the shorts have great soundfields, are well recorded and use sound in interesting ways, which is usually.  Too bad at least some were not lossless.  There are no extras, though if we count the bonus shorts as such, we added a rating just in case.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo