Reel of the Month Club (Dec. 2024): Coat of Arms
December 21, 2024
Japanese digital artist and director Daito Manabe’s latest collaboration with UK electro-master Squarepusher uses AI to modify ads, pedestrians, and architecture in footage of Tokyo’s Shibuya ward to create a glitchy, hallucinogenic near future. [Watch]
Picking up where director Pete Candeland left off in 2018’s “Five & The Missing Jewels” spot, Partizan director Michael Gracey takes flight for Great Western Railway with animation handled again by Electic Theatre Collective in London. [Watch]
The intimate bond between a dog and his owner takes on a poetic and sculptural air in this low-key animated work based on illustrations by artist Dane Khy thru London studio Coffee & TV for UK animal welfare charity Mayhew. [Watch]
Director Shaofu Zhang and the crew at Taiko’s studios in LA and Wuhan, China reimagine the Chinese myth of Pangu (aka the first living being and creator of everything) in this charming short film for Tencent’s Penguin Pictures. [Watch]
An unexpected mix of biblical serpent, urban basketball, and brutalist architecture creates plenty of tension and intrigue in “My Kingdom Come,” the latest passion project from German director and matte painter Walter Stoehr. [Watch]
Designer/directors Cyril Calgaro and Valentin Nouvel combine forces to complete an irreverent animated title and episode package for geopolitical web series “Casus Boloss” found on Euro free-to-air television network ARTE. [Watch]
Baltic CG master Rimantas Lukavicius makes the case for Nike’s “Move to Zero” sustainability plan with this pristine treatment showcasing how the company recycles billions of plastic water bottles into sneaker soles and apparel thread. [Watch]
With the help of London’s Moth Studio and Saatchi & Saatchi, UK charity Marie Curie (who specialize in caring for people with a terminal illness) are on a mission to raise our comfort level with conversations about death. [Watch]
Following the success of their first animated mini-doc “The Only Gay in Nigeria” (included in Stash 131), writer/directors Andre Tomonari and Gui Boucault at Royal in São Paulo return with a twisted tale of maraschinos and marijuana in Brooklyn. [Watch]
In 2015, Hungry Man director Wayne McClammy changed the scale and intensity of ad parody forever with this magnum opus, and now for Super Bowl LIV he and The Mill VFX crew conjure a new level of sci-fi cameo-fest for Walmart. [Watch]
In 2017, Toronto animator/filmmaker Noam Sussman decamped to the Estonian Academy of Arts to pursue his master’s degree in animation. The result was “Dream Cream”, a comedic look at dark themes including boredom, greed, and addiction. [Watch]
For the first time since their TV debut in 2013, Adult Swim’s star misfits Rick and Morty will dimension-hop to the Super Bowl in 2020 by way of this note-perfect work produced in-house by the network thru the Grey Group for Pringles. [Watch]
The creative liaison of CG artists/directors Alexa Sirbu and Lukas Vojir, which started when they both worked at ManvsMachine in London, is now an official studio called XK with several new standout motion pieces. [Watch]
The timeless theme of a stranger adapting to a strange land receives an ironic yet compassionate update in this animated short by six graduate students from the class of 2018 at Supinfocom RUBIKA in France. [Watch]
