Short Film Final (12/8)

The Alphabet year and director

1968, David Lynch

The Alphabet Summary

a experimental short film directed by David Lynch that combines live-action and animation to depict a woman's nightmarish vision of learning the alphabet. The film features a continuous recitation of the alphabet accompanied by bizarre, abstract, and menacing representations of the letters, creating a sense of dread and horror.

The Alphabet main character and goal

A woman who is lying in bed having this nightmare. At the end she is covered in polka dots, coughs up blood, then recites the ABC's.

The alphabet Film style

Live action and animation are combined to create something that feels nightmarish and un-easy.

Herd year and director

1999, Mike Mitchell

Herd Summary

A regular man finds an Alien and becomes his friend. He helps him build a mysterious device then shows him the sites of earth. The man gets apprehended by government agents and interrogated about the alien and device that he had him build. It turns out that this same thing happened to many people and when they all put their mysterious devices together, it turns into a device that destroys earth. The Alien flies away in a spaceship made of a giant burger and then repopulates the earth with cows.

Herd main character and their goal

A normal man who works flipping burgers who finds an alien. His goal is to help the alien

Herd film making style

Mostly Live action with the use of a muppet alien and miniatures cows at the beginning and end.

Vincent year and director

1982, Tim Burton

Vincent Summary

A 7 year old boy named Vincent Malloy dreams of being like Vincent Price. He is a good kid, but wants to live a life of darkness, horror, and torment. He gets in trouble for digging up his mother's flower beds to "unburry this wife who had been buried alive". His mother tells him that he is not Vincent Price and he should go out and play and be a kid. In the end he "goes insane",

Vincent main character and their goal

7 year old boy Vincent Malloy who wants to be like Vincent Price.

Vincent film style

Stop motion animation mostly utilizing 3d figures, with some 2d stop motion animation as well

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow year and director

1949, Clyde Geronimi and Jack Kinney through Disney

Legend of Sleepy Hollow summary

A school teacher named Ichabod Crane from a small village called Sleepy Hollow falls for a girl named Katerina. He finds himself competing with the man named Brom for her favor. When Katerina's father throws a halloween party both Ichabod and Brom go and the rivalry continues. Brom tells the story of the Headless Horseman to scare Ichabod. On Ichabod's ride home from the party, he encounters the headless horsemen and afterwards is never heard from again.

Legend of Sleepy Hallow Main Character and their goal

Ichabod Crane, a local school teacher who was a little strange, but was a lady man. He has a big appetite. He wants to win over Katerina.

Legend of Sleepy Hollow film style

2d traditional animation. very cartoonish with a lot of slap stick humor

Face Like a Frog Year and Director

1988, Sally Cruikshank

Face Like a Frog Summary

A frog runs into another frog on a drive who says there is a hex on her house. He agrees to come check it out. He witnesses a bunch of abstract and strange things inside. A lizard sings a song about not going to the basement. They run away from sentient nuts. In the end they go to Miami beach.

Face like a frog main character and their goal

A frog who wants to get out of the haunted house.

Face like a frog film style

2D animation. It is frequently abstract and constantly shifting. It is very psychedelic.

runaway brain year and director

1995, Chris Bailey, Disney

runaway brain summary

In an attempt to get money to take minnie on a birthday trip to Hawaii, Micky takes a job working for Doctor Frankenollie. However, when he arrives he gets his brain switched with a monster named Julius created by the doctor. His old body (with the monster's brain) finds a picture of Minnie in Micky's wallet and goes off to find Minnie. Mickey, in his new body, runs after him. When they find her, Minnie doesn't understand what is happening and miscommunication ensues. They end up on a skyscraper and then land on a telephone line, electrocuting them and switching back their brains. They defeat Julius using a rope and a moving billboard and go on their trip to Hawaii.

runaway brain main character and their goal

Mickey Mouse. His goal at the beginning is to get money for a Hawaii trip. His goal becomes getting his body back.

runaway brain film style

2D animation. Cartoon humor and logic.

Door year and director

1990, David Anderson

Door summary

A world made of doors spinning in space. There are a lot of strange things that you can find in the doors. Some doors are locked, some are open. We start off with a fantastical colorful representation of the world of doors, but as we move through the doors we eventually get to a black and white forest with objects that all move. Meanwhile there is a strange narration of one man recounting an argument between a man and a woman about the doors and the keys. The man drills himself into the ground then blows up. In the end we make our way out of the world to the outside of the planet . It is revealed the narration is being done by 2 floating talking skulls.

Door main character and their goal

The man and the women whose actions are being described through narration. The man wants to unlock the door. The woman wants to leave it alone.

Door film style

Animation, stop motion, and pixelization

Delusions in Modern Primitivism Year and Director

2000, Daniel Loflin

Delusions in Modern Primitivism summary

A man goes to a garage to get shot as a form of body art. A camera man follows him on this journey. The whole thing is framed as a documentary and the majority of the film is him talking to the camera man in his car as he drives to the appointment. After he gets shot, he gets put in an ambulance and taken to the hospital.

Delusions in Modern Primitivism main character and their goal

he man. He wants to get shot as a form of body art.

Delusions in Modern Primitivism film style

Live action mockumentary. All hand held camera

Fool's Day year and director

2013, Cody Blue Snider

Fool's Day summary

A group of 4th graders attempt to prank their teacher by putting a bunch of stuff in her coffee. When she drinks it her head explodes and the 4th graders panic. They resolve to hide the body in the sandbox and clean up the mess before the cop who was scheduled to come in and talk to the class about D.A.R.E arrives at 9. They tie up Jami, the one girl who wants to tell on them, and hide her in the bathroom. They succeed in cleaning up and fooling the cop, but then he drinks the coffee and his head explodes as well.

Fool's Day main character and their goal

The group of 4th graders. Their goal at the beginning is to prank their teacher. At the end it is to hide the bodies so they don't go to jail.

Fool's Day film style

Like action with special effects for heads exploding. camera work emphasizes humor

Interesting ball year and director

2014, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert

Interesting ball summary

We follow a red ball as it bounces across a town and pass a cast of zany characters and situations. There is a woman who is trying to break up with a much older man. There is a man whose foot gets stuck in his other friend's butt and he ends up getting completely sucked into him. There is a woman who has sex with the ball and then her husband shoots the ball in revenge. A woman who is dealing with the loss of her husband and then has to chase her runaway refrigerator. A group of frat guys on the beach who have a group hug and then merge into one giant frat guy stack that can walk. They accidentally kill a woman then get shot down by the cops before going in and out of the sand like a giant sandworm.

Interesting ball main character and their goal

The ball that wants to bounce through town and experience life. Also to **** that one guy's wife.

Interesting ball film style

Life action with some animation and special effects used to make the crazy events happen.

Next Floor year and director

2008, Denis Villeneuve

Next Floor summary

A group of powerful individuals sit around a table and gluttonously eat. Eventually they become too heavy for the floor and fall through to the next floor. The staff must scrabble to follow them down to keep the feast going. This happens over and over as they fall through more and more floors. As this happens they become more and more covered in dust. There is one woman who doesn't really eat anything at first, but eventually joins in. They fall down and down and down, presumably forever. We end on a drum beat and a zoom in on the head server's eye.

Next Floor main character and goal

The servers who have to scramble to follow the people at the table who keep dropping down and down. Their goal is to serve the food and keep up with the falling table.

Next Floor film style

Like action with the use of special effects.

Red Hot Riding Hood year and director

1943, Tex Avery

Red Hot Riding Hood summary

It starts off as a regular retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, but when the characters start complaining that it is the same thing over and over again, the story is altered. The wolf is a rich wolf in the city who is after little red, who works in a hollywood night club. Red tells the wolf she has to visit her grandma and the wolf follows her. When he gets to Grandma's apartment, grandma tries to get with him, which he runs away from. In the end he swears off women, then sees Red again and kills himself.

Red Hot Riding Hood main character and goal

The wolf. His goal is to get with Little Red Riding Hood and escape grandma.

Red Hot Riding Hood film style

2D traditional hand drawn animation.

The Big Snit year and director

1985, Richard Condie

The Big Snit summary

It's a short animated film about a married couple dealing with small daily annoyances while a global catastrophe looms outside. They start out playing scrabble. The man is annoyed that the woman is always shaking her eyes. The woman is annoyed that the man is always sawing things. These things turn into a huge argument, but they end up putting their differences aside when they remember they love each other. Meanwhile nuclear war rages and everyone in the world dies. In the end they are all in heaven.

The Big Snit main character and goal

The main characters are the couple. They want the other one to stop doing the thing that annoys them while they get to continue doing the thing they like.

The Big Snit film style

It uses hand-drawn, exaggerated animation, made through traditional cel animation.

The Fan and the Flower year and director

2005, Bill Plympton

The Fan and the Flower Summary

It's a short animated story about a small flower trying to impress a fan and win its affection though they can never touch. A lonely ceiling fan lives in an old ladies house. One day the old woman brought a plant into the room. The ceiling fan fell in love with her and showed off for her. The plant grew flowers to let him know she liked him. The lady becomes forgetful and begins to forget to water the plant. The fan spinned super fast and flew through the roof, creating a hole in the roof so the rain could fall on the plant. In the end the plant gets planted outside and grows flowers that look like ceiling fans.

The Fan and the Flower main character and goal

The main characters are the flower and the fan, they just want to be together.

The Fan and the Flower film style

It uses a hand-drawn animation style. Mostly just line animation with minimal color.

One Rat Short year and director

2006, Alex Weil

One Rat Short summary

It's a short animated film about a lab rat trying to help his rat lover escape from a scientist's experiment, highlighting the dark side of testing. A rat from the streets falls into a lab full of lab rats and he falls in love with one . The fancy lab equipment recognizes him as a rat and traps him. A chip bag flies in with the bar code on it as the girl rat and it causes the lab equipment to freak out and open the doors. The boy rat gets out, but the girl rat gets stuck in the lab.

One Rat Short main character and goal

The main character is the rat, and its goal is to survive and avoid the scientist's traps.

One Rat Short film style

It uses 3D computer animation

Paperman year and director

2012, John Kahrs

Paperman summary

It's a short animated film about a young man who tries to get the attention of a woman he meets at a train station using paper airplanes. A man meets a woman at the train station. One of his papers flies in her face and gets a lipstick mark on it. In the office he sees her in the building across the street and attempts to throw paper airplanes through her window to get her attention. When she leaves the building he runs after her. The paper airplanes he made guide him to her while the paper airplane with the lipstick mark guides her to him

Paperman main character and goal

The main character is the man, and his goal is to find the woman and see her again.

Paperman film style

It uses a blend of 2D and 3D animation, with hand-drawn lines over computer-generated models.

Henry year and director

2011, Yan England

Henry summary

It's a live-action short about a man with Alzheimer's who struggles with memory loss and confusion while trying to understand the current world around him. He is a pianist who met his violinist wife through music during the 2nd world war. He is convinced she is alive because of his Alzheimer's but she died a year ago. He gets put in a facility and has visions of his past. He tries to leave the facility but can't. His daughter is there the whole time, but he can't remember that she is his daughter until the very end, but then he forgets again

Henry main character and goal

Henry, the main character, wants to hold onto his memories and maintain a sense of connection despite his Alzheimer's.

Henry film syle

It's live-action with intimate camera work and realistic lighting to emphasize Henry's disorientation and emotional struggles.

The Neighbors' Window year and director

2019, Marshall Curry

The Neighbors' Window Summary

It's a short live-action film about a woman who becomes fascinated with her younger neighbors' lives, wanting it, reflecting on her own life, only to realize her neighbors want what she has too. In the beginning she is overwhelmed by her children and busy life. She has just had a baby. Her and her husband can see the neighbors across the street having sex. This happens regularly and she becomes jealous that her and her husband no longer have that. One day the woman sees the man die of cancer through the window and goes over to comfort the woman. The woman tells her that she sees her through the window of her apartment and always wanted what she had: a family.

The Neighbors' Window main character and goal

Allison, the main character, who observes her neighbors' lives while coming to terms with her own.

The Neighbors' Window film style

It's live-action with realistic cinematography, using close-ups and framing through windows to emphasize perspective and emotional contrast.

78 Tours year and director

1985, Georges Schwizgebel

78 Tours summary

It's an abstract animated short that visualizes the rhythm and patterns of a spinning record, creating a musical experience. We zoom out to see people at the park are just patterns on a woman's dress. Shapes and colors shift in and out to create multiple new objects and people. Coffee is featured heavily.

78 Tours main character and goal

There isn't a main character, it's more of an artistic film.

78 Tours film style

It uses hand-painted animation on cels.

Balance year and director

1989, Christoph Lauenstein and Wolfgang Lauenstein

Balance summary

It's a short film about five people on a platform who must carefully balance objects to survive, showing how greed and selfishness can upset harmony. They begin in balance, but then a music box arrives on the platform after one of them fishes it up. All wanting the box, they end up throwing the platform off balance. In the end they all end but 1 up falling off, and the last man is left in a position where he can't move and can't get to the box.

Balance main character and goal

There isn't a single main character; each person's goal is to keep themselves safe while taking or moving objects, which ultimately creates conflict.

Balance film style

It uses stop-motion animation.

Symphony in Slag year and director

1951, Tex Avery

Symphony in Slag summary

A man dies and goes to Heaven, but when he speaks entirely in 1950s slang, the angels can't understand him, so a guide interprets his words through wild visual puns.

Symphony in Slag main character and goal

The main character is a slang-speaking man whose goal is simply to tell his life story so he can get into heavily.

Symphony in Slag film style

It uses hand-drawn, exaggerated animation to literally show the meanings of slang phrases, turning words into funny visual gags.

The Fly year and director

1967, Vladimir Jutrisa & Aleksander Marks

The Fly Summary

It's a short animated film showing the life of a fly in a fast-paced way, highlighting its tiny struggles and adventures. The fly starts much smaller than the man then starts to grow, eventually becoming the same size as the man, and then bigger than the man, so that the man is fly sized compared to the fly. The fly tries to stomp on the man like the man tries to stop on it at the beginning. In the end the man falls into space and then they are the same size again.

The Fly Main Character and Goal

The main character is the fly, and its goal is simply to survive and navigate its environment.

The Fly film style

It uses hand-drawn animation with exaggerated movements and close-ups to make the tiny world feel lively.

The Collector's Gift year and director

2013, Ryan Kravitz

The Collector's Gift summary

It's a short animated story about a man who collects things and a child who finds what he left behind. In the past an old man collects all the elements of earth, but dies before he can add cobalt to his collection, the last one he had left. In the present the little girl finds the windmill where the man lived and reads his journal of all the things he did to collect his elements. The girl finds the vial of cobalt in the house and adds it to the collection. When she does the windmills starts spinning and all the elements mix, creating light and flowers in the post apocalyptic landscape

The Collector's Gift main character and goal

The main character is the child who discovers everything.

The Collector's Gift film style

It uses 2D hand-drawn animation.

Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No year and director

2010, james Blagden

Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No summary

It's a short animated documentary about baseball player Dock Ellis, focusing on the no-hitter game he pitched while reportedly on LSD. He describes how he was on LSD and stimulants and couldn't even really see the batters. He said it was easier to pitch on LSD because he was used to medicating himself.

Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No main character and goal

Dock Ellis is the main character, and his goal is to pitch a no-hitter despite his altered state.

Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No film style

It uses 2D animation

Johnny Express year and director

2014, Kyungmin Woo

Johnny Express summary

It's a short animated comedy about a delivery man on a strange alien planet who ends up destroying the planet by accident. In the beginning he lands on a planet that seems empty to find he has to deliver a microscopic package. He walks around looking for where to deliver it completely unaware that with every step he takes he is destroying the tiny civilization under his feet. He leaves the planet and accidentally obliterates it with the rocket thrusters. The tiny alien does end up with his packet in the end though.

Johnny Express main character and goal

Johnny is the main character, and his goal is to complete his deliveries quickly, but things keep going wrong.

Johnny Express film style

It uses 3D computer animation.