Craig Downing

Meet Buck. Buck is the town’s simple electrician with a bumbling crush on the ever so gorgeous Mady. Buck notices Mady. Mady doesn’t notice Buck—classic. But, after a freak electrical accident, Buck is gifted with the power to slow time down… way down. What ever will Buck do with his newfound power to slow down time? Why, finally win the attention of his dream girl Mady, of course! And, like any love-hungry protagonist, Buck logically deputizes himself to be the hero that Mady so desperately wants in her life. Buck whips up a superhero costume with questionable electrical nodes to accommodate his newfound powers. From here, Buck tirelessly tries to help everyone in distress hoping to finally grab the attention of his dream girl. Unfortunately, as it happens with time-welding powers, his original plan continues to endearingly fall short.

While at Ecole Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques, Hugo Jackson, Pascal Chandelier, Valentin Michel, Bastien Mortelecque, and Elliot Maren bring us this stunning, crisp, and fun animation. The details in the film are impressive down to each pixel and it even receives bonus points for having an animation within the animation. With the quality of this short, Electroshock could easily stand its ground with a number of shorts by, say, Pixar. This is amazing considering that Electroshock was completed as part of a student program. Even with a few nods to the traditional comic book formula, Electroshock adds its own twists to the classic story. Yes, it’s in French, but this short has me wondering how much more motivated I would be to learn a language if all the learning material utilized entertaining animations like this one.