Manchester Animation Festival DAY TWO (Shorts I loved and the Women of Animation) (OUAN402)

Here are more great animation festival things.

Women Of Animation - A Panel:

Watching this panel sure made me thankful that I turned out to be a man of animation. I've been afforded so many perks, not just in the industry but in life and this panel helped to highlight the very real struggle of those who didn't win the genetic lottery. Of course, I'm exaggerating with that comment there for the sake of wacky jokes but animation is unfortunately a HUGELY bloke dominated industry. This panel felt very optimistic and, though. The women, including Terry Wragg, Camilla Deakin, Lindsay Watson and Ruth Fielding were tremendous and it was great to see some snippets of animation that clearly highlight an issue, further fighting against the stereotype that animation should be used simply to plonk your dumb kids in front of for an afternoon. No, it has far greater meaning than that.

Once Upon A Line: Dir Alicja Jasina / United States

One of my very favourite shorts of the whole event for its distinctive and entrancing art style and also the way the narrative was presented by showing how the main character's day over and over again, with interesting changes made each time. Repetition is totally a form of comedy. I feel like I could've watched this piece a bajillion times just to catch every clever detail. I have never really been a fan of abstract stuff since I tend to prefer more character driven animations, but to be fair I probably haven't watched enough abstract stuff to make a judgement. However, this piece took every one of my bigoted preconceptions, rolled them into a ball and then bashed them against my stupid head because the animation is both character driven and abstract, and it made me want to have a bash at switching up my own style to experiment.

Fishwitch: Dir Adrienne Dowling / United Kingdom

Another of my very favourite animations of the festival, mostly because of this amazing gill man character:

LOOK AT HIS HILARIOUS STUPID FACE! IT MADE ME LAUGH SO F*CKING HARD

The stop motion is practically flawless, the characters look and act hilarious and I was chuckling heartily from start to end. The characters bounced off each other really well, it was wonderfully paced. The gill man was very relatable because I am also an amphibian with a stupid face. It had romance, action, the whole lot. This animation knew exactly what it wanted to be and I can't think of anything I dislike about it.