Viborg Animation Festival happened :)

     It has been a quite busy week, last one. It was the VAF week and we got  to see plenty of awesome movies. It is also the week when almost all of the alumni from The Animation Workshop School joined the Festival and the Big Party.

This is the mascot of VAF:

     The first seen movie at VAF was the charming "My life as a courgette" directed by Claude Barras and the second "Kubo and the two strings" directed by Travis Knight. After I saw the sad and melancholic "Psiconautas the forgotten children" a Spanish movie directed by Pedro Rivero and Alberto Vasquez, and Pedro was present as well, giving a Q&A session after the screening. The fourth I've seen was the beautiful "The Red Turtle" directed byMichael Dudok de wit .  I will speak about these ones a bit later in the post.
     VAF (Viborg Animation Festival) is a young festival which is mainly happening because people in Viborg love art and animation. It was the biggest festival this year, including as well the EURANIM Workshop which happened this time around in Denmark. We had witnessed a show on a big building located near the school, which was quite impressive, but of course we wanted slightly more.
Everybody was busy and running around for this festival, somebody helping, somebody enjoying movies, somebody working... but, however, everybody had fun.

    So, let me talk about movies I have seen. Firstly, "My life as a courgette" was so innocent, I haven't had time to think about it as a stop-motion animation, it was so real and so emotional. I got teared in the end. I did enjoyed a lot the clearness of the characters, their attitudes and motivations. Even though Icar (Courgette) is the main character, I got really attached to Simon, the secondary character, who had such a strong will through the movie and especially in the end. I had given this movie 10 on IMDB, I think it's worth watching, is about life and is fun.

     Next on the list is "Kubo and the two strings". It is a movie of visuals, there is lots of wonderful animation and puppets, great assets and technology. I think Kubo treats many beautiful themes, but they're a bit too many for 2h. They could have focused on his adventure of finding the armor and fighting his grandpa, but the relationship of his mother and father felt a bit like another movie. I'm not a movie critic, but I felt like the story was missing something. The visual experience was super great, I'm mesmerized by all of it as well as the music. I love Regina Spektor :D

    But don't get sad, here comes something more sad. Is called "Psiconautas the forgotten children". It is a movie about people living on an island, struggling with loss, after an atomic factory explosion. It is also a story about how humans struggle with their psychological/physical issues. It is a movie about drugs. Even thought is a movie about children friendly looking characters, is not, by any chance a children movie. The watercolor painted backgrounds give a bit of breath from the harsh topic as well the cute looking characters. Pedro Rivero said that this is based on a comic book, which is mainly about Birdboy and his drugs addiction. I think is a nice movie, but somehow you have to be prepared before watching it, because it looks much sweeter from posters and title, but it's totally worth a watch in the right mood.

     The fourth movie watched was "The Red Turtle". I think this movie is just so simple, everything is simple with a special aesthetic. The animation is quite realistic and very subtle. I really enjoyed the moment when the protagonist falls from the cliff and gets trapped between high rocks. It feels so claustrophobic because the space is so narrow and you can't see an escape, you really feel for the character. Is the same when he is holding a deep breath under the water in order to search for an escape under the rocks. The saddest moment, except for the ending, was the moment when the protagonist sits near the woman and she is collecting oysters, she shares oysters with him and in his mind he recalls the moment he hit her (the turtle) with a heavy stick in his agony. I felt how guilty the man feels, but at the same time you don't judge him, you just feel sorry for him. I haven't cried in the ending of the movie, even though it was so emotional. But, I started crying when I saw an old man from the audience, sitting next to his old wife; picking his tears from his cheek, I felt it was something special. 

     This was it. The amazing Puple frog was speaking to you today,about some marvelous movies and the wonderful VAF which happened from 26st of September till the 2nd of October.

Next post will be about Inktober and about the 3D evolution in Maya I am going through. Have a fantastic weekend!