06 of 25 , BAF14 pt1 for the better: and introduction

Much like the previous two years, I attended Bradford Animation Festival 2014 and I  attended all it's showings, including the closing award ceremony,sadly i must admit this years were the least enjoyable of the 3 years attending, but it was slightly better then last years. the reason of this is because not too meany of the animations show stood out, most were interesting, others were odd. and a few were just...why?.... just what am i even watching?...

Just like the other two years, they had a selection of films showing, the films included this year were,


Laika's The BoxTrolls (as well as a look behind the making of) ,
Ardman's The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists, (as well as a look behind the making of) ,
John Halas and Joy Batchelor's Animal Farm (as well as a guest speaker)

Michel Ocelot's Azur and Asmar: The Princes'
Quest (as well as a talk with/from Michel.
and finally Yi GAO and Yichang Zhu's Voyage Extraordinaire

So this years selection of animations, from both professional and student covered a wide range of styles, stories and feelings. yet they were quite a few that were sadly forgettable dude to their lack of appeal or overall appearance and others remember-able for both good and bad reasons,,,

such as 'Mute', a rather cute looking animation, with a would of 'people' that lack a mouth (so how do they eat i wonder) After a child accidentally knocks a knife over allowing it to fall on him/her, the family here a sound they never herd befor,,, the bay had a mouth, not only that it was crying. then from there a rather odd yet funny chain of events happen as this revelation spreads and all the 'people' start finding gruesome, some what violent yet oddly funny ways to cut themselves a mouth.. most use there new "gift" for singing, talking, and the odd one uses it for,, Ahum,,, other suggestive reasons,,, other all the animation was fun to watch, and i was able to vew it not once, but 3 times,  at the festival,


another film/animation was Voyage Extraordinaire by Yi GAO and Yichang Zhu's
This film was,, really confusing and inconsistent. it suffered of poor composition and passage of time... as in one moment the main characters are in one location talking about staying in the daylight , next moment they are out at sea at night

in addition the animations..or rather actions were inconsistent, example, mid way into the film the crow of the ship are dying of thrust, crow members are literally dropping dead...or passing out from lack of water (yet looked perfectly health) , but then moments later when they find land, all the men are on there feet jumping and full of energy. that and they had no problems walking a large distance to said water... for people half dead from thrust they sure were moving fast. and finally, as the movie draw to the end, it got more progressively strange and stupid,, such stupidity being the "hero" rides two sharks as surf boards,,, yet from time to time dorsal fins would alternate between that of a shark (fin and sharp) to a  dolphins (fat, long and rounded). this is however not to say the film or the animation itself was bad, i did sit to the very end of this, 40 minute  film?... i cant remember.. the film may have been slightly bad but that's not to say i wouldn't wan to watch it again

But saying all that even though at time this years Festival was a little dull at times it was still enjoyable to view new/un discoverer old animations..