Monday, March 15, 2010

The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello

For a rollicking good romp in Steampunk lands comes the Australian short, The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello!

I am not entirely sure how even to begin with this piece. It's beautifully done. Simple, but elegant. It recalls a combination of Tim Burton's aesthetic for The Nightmare Before Christmas or Corpse Bride and paper cutouts. Needless to say, I'm a huge fan.

Once again, I am shocked to find that this has existed for quite some time and it didn't trickle down the grapevine to find me until now. Released in 2005 and directed by Anthony Lucas, it has won the AFI award twice and was nominated for an academy award in 2006. Kudos to my friend here in college-land Taylor for showing it to me.

Fortunately it appears to be out on DVD, available through Madman. Unfortunately it also appears to only be available to order in Australia, but who knows - perhaps it will make its way overseas before long. However, to make up for this minor setback, it appears that Jasper will not be confined to simply one voyage, ladies and gentlemen! According to The Gothia Gazette (Jasper's official website), he will embark on not one, but four voyages! I eagerly await their arrival.

Once again, thank you Taylor for the link!
For the rest of you, I hope you enjoy.

Pay Jasper a visit on the Youtubes!

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the update - I will check it out!

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  2. I watched this, too...It was AMAZING. Just listening to the narrator was a worthwhile experience, but combining it with all the other elements turned it into a piece of art.

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  3. Here's in infamous Taylor's response, complete with new link!

    "The animation style is called "Wayang kulit", it's a type of shadow puppet theatre from Java. Another good example of this is Lotte Reiniger's "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25SP4ftxklg), which is the oldest surviving animated feature. unfortunately only parts of it 65 minute running time survive to this day."

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  4. [EDIT]: THE infamous Taylor. Typo for the lose. :/

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