The future is kaplow!
What they say:
“A sleeping gigantic electric generation kaiju NO.33, so called ELEKI-MAGMA, which the city relies on its electric power. One day, a mysterious giant robot PROTO-TAITAN appeared in the sky and destroyed the city! An accumulation of electricity, which lost its way in the body, has finally awakened ELEKI-MAGMA!”
The Review:
The short begins with the adorable series’ mascot animation, as per usual. We then cut away to what I imagine people in the 1980s thought the future looked like with giant cell phones and globs of electricity surging through the antennas of televisions. That couldn’t be dangerous for people with toddlers in the slightest. Also, everything is inexplicably red. Anyhow, a giant robot falls from the sky, presumably crushing innocent people.
We then cut away to people fleeing in fear for their lives. This itself is intercut with a horrible looking CG dinosaur mobilizing and charging towards the robot. As the civilians flee to a more secure location CG dinosaur and giant robot engage in battle because… of reasons…. Well I’m sure the writer had reasons they were just too excited to put them in the short film. The CG dinosaur wins the fight! Answering the age old question that no one really cared about.
CG dinosaur then goes off presumably to cause more destruction and cause more civilian causalities. Some nameless lady then strips down to her underwear on the hill in front of thousands of people because it was “stuffy” in the city. Oh, and thousands of people were probably displaced from their homes and stood there watching their whole world crumble around them. And they all lived happily ever after.
In summary:
This was probably the better of the most recent shorts for Animator Expo; most likely because it was directed by the person behind Time of Eve. The short itself is well composed and thought through. Mostly. There are some crucial details left unexplained that probably would have given a better understanding of matters and some sort of epilogue might have been nice. Otherwise, this short is cheesy fun.
Grade: C+
Streamed by: animatorexpo.com
> CG dinosaur
No CG.All dinosaur is hand-drawn. You should check the official commentary program.