Hats off to Charles Huettner for this week’s Horror Film Short at TSFP. He created it as a part of the Late Night Work Club’s collection of shorts entitled “Ghost Stories.” All of the pieces in the collection could easily be featured here and I will be selecting some others as a part of this series, but Huettner’s “The Jump” is worth singling out in particular.
This gorgeous little animated piece captures everything I love about where animation has gone and is headed. Atmospheric, indie, stylistic and above all… INTERESTING, work like this is a hot poker in the eye of all of the hyper realistic CG monstrosities that so many studios are churching out. There’s a place for that too, but I think there is just so much artistic intent that shows through here. And that’s just the style of “The Jump.”
The story itself is quite elegant with very strong storytelling drawing us into it. This is how so many shorts used to be. I remember running to my local indie theatre, The Little in Rochester New York, in my formative years for now classic short animation festivals. So many were mysterious and intriguing from “the get” with a strong sense of “questioning” in the early seconds that pulls the viewer in. So often, that quality of discovery can be lost in technique or heavy handedness these days. Huettner doesn’t lose that focus here. “The Jump” is a wonderful little ghost story, wonderfully told.
I really have to give big ups on sound design here as well. The sound, in turns, reminded me of the masterwork “Akira” and even Miyazaki a bit.
In all, a tour de force, and I’m thrilled to share it.
———
THE STRANGE, FAR PLACES 