More animation-porn for all of you today. Well…now that I pause and think about it that’s a terrible description since there IS actual animated porn out there. What I meant is with Meet Meline we have another film that has little reason to be other than to look pretty. But goodness does it satisfy that one requirement! I’m am really getting astonished at the level of independent 3D animation that is getting put out right now, and Meet Meline is simply the latest. A labor of love, this film was created by Sebastian Laban and his wife, Virginie Goyons-Laban, and has been in the works for at least 3 years, judging by their production blog. That’s longer than Virginie has had that “Laban” affixed to the end of her name, so the working relationship must have been at least somewhat satisfactory! The description of the plot from the website:

Meline is a little girl who spends most of her time in her grand-parents barn, drawing. One day, a scared furry little creature gets lost in the barn. All excited about this mysterious creature, Meline will now try as hard as she can to approach it and discover it.

The standout feature of the short film is the extraordinarily detailed environment that Meline interacts in, which is lovingly created and stocked with a multitude of little items and details. The lighting effects in particular majestically enhance the surroundings. As my intro intimated though, the film does have problems. The process of Meline “discovering” this creature, is really an excuse to follow her around the barn for nearly 5 minutes. Its perplexing that such astonishing effort was summoned for such minimal inspiration. This leads directly into the second complaint, which is that the direction of the film is far too intrusive. In the course of following the critter’s chaotic flight and Meline’s efforts to track it, we are treated to every kind of virtual camera movement there is: large multi-planar swoops, spins, overhead perspectives, you name it. Spatial coherence for the audience is destroyed. But most baffling to me is the atmosphere of the piece, which very naturally started on whimsy, only to perceptibly shift to suspense. Meline has her flashlight go out near the end almost as if she was in a horror film. The animal is concealed from view the entire movie, so perhaps we are meant to briefly think the worst, yet the glimpses we do see look so entirely like a common squirrel that its a wonder anyone could think that. As you can see, I took issues with the aspects of the film, but the decision to post it nonetheless is a testament to the wonderful artistry displayed throughout the short. If it did not suffer from the aforementioned flaws, I surely would do a featured review for it. But despite these quibbles, at a economical 6 minutes I do not have reservations recommending it as a Short of the Moment for those of you who, like me, enjoy visual treats now and then.