The Old Man and the Sea - Animated

Perhaps Ernest Hemingway's greatest novel, The Old Man and the Sea tells of the epic struggle between Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman and a giant marlin he is determined to catch.  Yet Santiago has gone without catching a single fish for over eighty days, something which the superstitious fishermen believe makes him unlucky.  His young apprentice Manolin is forbidden to join him at sea lest he be drowned and so the old man sets out alone.

The rest of the novel deals with the day’s long struggle between Santiago and the marlin.  This stop motion short by Marcel Schindler beautifully documents this epic clash between the fisherman and his quarry.  The design is by Hagen Reiling - fantastic and evocative artwork - and the music provided by Awolnation and their song Sail.  Altogether a wonderful twenty first century version of a classic of the 1950s.

Fishing with Cormorants

It is partnership between man and animal which has lasted over a millennia. A fisherman needs to catch enough fish to sell and feed himself and his family. Sometimes that means that he needs an assistant.  The Ark in Space takes a look at the fascinating relationship between the cormorant and the fishermen of China's inland rivers.

Image Credit Pathos Photos

Hooked

A hungry little fish searches for food but very quickly becomes distracted by the shiny pink bait on the end of a very sharp looking round thing. This doesn’t have the poor little guy being reeled in as its denouement, so don’t worry. It is, however, a very fine example of some of the animation coming out of Africa these days.

Character Matters Animation Studio, the maker of Hooked is an award winning 3D Animation Studio based in Cape Town, South Africa. Character Matters is passionate about the development and creation of memorable animated feature films, television series and characters that appeal to the whole family. Combining cutting edge technology with creative talent, the staff over at Character Matters delivers world class 3D animation. They are hardly new kids on the animation block, either, having been around for 15 years. However, this may be the year that the rest of the world sits up and takes notice!

Big Catch - The Movie

This is something quite special. The Big Catch Movie (which is in fact just a few minutes long) is one of the best animated short films I have seen in a long time. It tells a simple story but it tells it in a wonderfully comic way and with great humor too.

A fisherman walks down a pier in his local town to go fishing.  Unbeknowns to him his would-be nemesis lurks in the waters nearby.  What happens next is a fantastic concoction of the accidental and the slapstick.

Perhaps the best thing about this is probably the kung fu seagulls (see below).  There are a few sly winks to other movies throughout this too, but I won't give the game away by telling you what they are - see if you catch them! As mini pastiches go they fly by...

For you animation buffs out there, the modelling and animation tasks were all done in Maya.  The rendering was done using Renderman/Mental Ray and for the effects like the water dripping off the shark (a very good effect too, water is hard to do!) there were some specially made scripts by film maker Moles Merlo who lives in Paris.  Shake was used for the compositing.

Watch this one to the end - you will, I can almost guarantee - love this (and yes, it is more than suitable for children and work throughout).