In a welcome contrast to the reverent tone of much Olympic content, directors Jean-Yves Parent and Michael Moercant (aka 4pm) at The Mill in Paris celebrate the event with a lighthearted in-house short film cast with antique tin toy characters.

Jean-Yves Parent and Michael Moercant: “We chose five sports to represent the five Olympic rings and emphasized this idea by giving each toy a dominant color from one of the rings. We had to keep a consistent logic when designing the toys: they had to have a small base with hidden mechanisms and most parts fixed so that we could understand the action without over complicating the animation.

“The 100m toy was an obvious choice as it’s a star discipline of the Olympic games, but it also closely resembles vintage toy mechanics. The runner who arrives first to the finishing line is a clear reference to Usain Bolt, hence he dominates the run effortlessly.
 

“We had to keep a consistent logic when designing the toys: they had to have a small base with hidden mechanisms and most parts fixed so that we could understand the action without over complicating the animation.”

 
“For the Judo sequence, we were inspired by vintage boxing toys, as well as renowned French judoka and fighter Teddy Riner. There is an unequal power struggle between complete opposites: an excitable little judoka wearing white and a massive, impassive Riner wearing blue. The scene also references the infamous scene from Indiana Jones (where an opponent performs a long sword demonstration only to be shot by Indiana).

“Table tennis also represented another unbalanced power struggle between two players. Including this sport in the film was a way of reproducing a sequence from one of our favorite films, Forrest Gump.

“The diving scene added an aquatic sport to the variety represented. Alone on stage, suspended in the air thanks to some set tricks, the diver prepares herself to jump, but her entry into the water does not go as planned.

“We also wanted to include a new event for the 2024 Olympics: breaking, which created a great contrast in style between modernity and antiques. The breakdancing takes place in an arena, but the dance moves rekindle children’s play. The tops of the dancers spin to the point where one of them ends up breaking loose and goes haywire.”
 
 

 
Production: The Mill Paris
Directors: 4pm (Michael Moercant, Jean-Yves Parent)
VFX Producer: Stéphanie Mollet
VFX Supervisor: Michael Moercant, Jean-Yves Parent
Concept: Jean-Yves Parent
VFX coordinators: Mathilde Cohen-Selmon, Milan Vicet
Modeling: Luca Kraether, Adrien Avit
Rigging: Marine Sisnaki, Alexandre Sauthier
Animation: Alexandre Sauthier, Hervé Anceau
Lighting: Mickael Girod, Alexandre Corcoy
Compositing: Michael Moercant, Jean-Yves Parent
Versioning: Sylvie Pham

Music: Rémi Boubal
Sound mixing: Bruno Ginestet
Sound Editing: Daniel Gries