Fears of the Dark

So I recently caught a showing of the animated collection film "Fear[s] of the Dark". I had been anticipating the release of this film for a long time. What did I think of it? Hmmm. It's complicated.

From an animation perspective there was a lot of fantastic work on display. Some of it was truly inspiring. There was one that I didn't like much at all sprinkled throughout the film involving shapes moving about. I felt for the theme of the film, this story fell short. On the opposite side of the spectrum was an amazing short - the last one in the program - that left me spellbound. Also the charcoal animation from Lorenzo Mattotti was beautiful.

From the story perspective... I liked two. Robert Burns story was very cool and the final animation from Richard McGuire was my favorite (and the most true to the theme of the collection).

My number one problem with this film.... the SUBTITLES!! Now I love to watch films in their original language... in fact I prefer it, but this film needed to handle the subtitles better. Maybe it was the screen I watched it on, but they were sooo hard to read! Maybe they should've dubbed it over (it is animation after all so re dubbing wouldn't make it seem awkward). I feel if it weren't for the hard to read subtitles I could've been more immersed in the film. Oh well... maybe a dvd release will come with an option (or fix the problem by adding a black bar underneath for the subtitles to go....

Despite the flaws, I must say I loved seeing some independent animation on the big screen with a more adult theme. It's tragic so many adults feel animation is just for children. Luckily things are looking up. Next year is going to be a big one for animation...stop motion actually. Wes Anderson is directing a stop motion to a classic Rhoald Dahl story and Coraline is coming out in February. I'm excited and you should be too!

Here's the trailer for Fear[s] of the Dark.... now go support your indie animators!