Liquid Sunshine

As far as thought-provoking, somewhat artsy 3dmm films go, there's not much out there. Liquid Sunshine, a new short film by Jon Barton, sets out to fill that void a little. Don't worry though, ye of little attention span, it's also extremely well constructed, a little funny, and features some of the greatest handmade character animation ever.

The movie is extremely "different". It's not your traditional story with a central problem, a beginning, middle, and resolution. Think of it as a drama with some comedy elements done in the stlye of Tuna Hematoma's "Mom/Dad" movies. A guy who is forced to live out the rest of his life in a hospital bed wakes up for the first time in years, and uses the oppurtunity to think over his life. What follows are a collection of snippets from his life that he narrates over. The writing is extremely good, and it's actually pretty funny at times, as long as you don't think of the depressing circumstances behind all of this reminising.

One thing that really stood out in this movie, for me at least, was the animation of the hand made characters. It's really excellent, possibly the best I've ever seen. The animation in this movie is at the level of some professional cartoons, it's really that good. The scenery is great too, and the expansion packs shiny new textures are put to great use throughout. Not a single default actor is used in this movie, and believe me, you won't miss them.

The sound is well done also. There aren't any sound effects used in the movie, as all of the main character's memories are muted so you can better here the narration, but the music in the background fit perfectly. Also, Jon Barton's voice acting is some of the best the 3dmm community has to offer. Every line is 100% convincing. I don't think that the person who wrote the original short story the movie was re-enacting could have done their own lines more justice, or for that matter, found anyone who could have.

There really isn't much to complain about in this movie, it was just incredibly well done. I still enjoyed "Yeti and Squidworth's Halloween Nightmare" more, but that's probably because I'm more of a viewer who likes a movie that makes them think "Haha, silly bird fell down and hurt himself" then "Wow...'Is my life really worth the electricity keeping me alive?'...deep man...deep.". Still, I recommend this movie to anyone, it's a great watch that actually makes you think for a change. I give it a 90% out of 100%. I probably would have given it even higher, but I was left wishing there was more to it.

90%