how about them apples?

...back to looking at the animated shorts that are nominated for an Oscar --

La Maison en Petits Cubes is not available as of yet to view online. but fear not, for a short clip exists at least to get you a little taste to appease the animation addiction you've been diagnosed with.



you can't really tell too much about the film from the clip -- but its quite an amazing artistic style that Japanese filmmaker Kunio Kato has shown time and again. as a part of the ROBOT character and animation design team, Kato has won praise over the world with his fantastic designs. La Maison en Petits Cubes won the 2008 Annecy Cristal award that honors the best short film at the festival. the blurb on the 12-mintue hand-drawn film given to the press:
"It is difficult to keep the house made of blocks out of the water. The grandfather who has lived in it has been constantly adding to it as the water level rises. This is the story about his family memories."



in 2001, he made the exceedingly surreal "The Apple Incident" which involves apples kind of...taking over the planet? my feeble attempts at categorizing the short do not give it justice -- its just plain weird and breathtaking at the same time.