Slocum at Sea with Himself

Seems I am the only fan of My Dog Tulip on imdb who sought out their follow-up film. The hand crafted animation style is worth seeking out.

At the time of My Dog Tulip, it was considered groundbreaking that two people made an entire animated film with that much artistic spirit and craft. Fast forward to today, companies are spending millions to mimic the low-fi feel, and coming up shorter. We will at some point see A. I. films be used to make films better than Hollywood ever made, made by teenager in their basements.

The answer is to value the underdogs while we can still see the effort on screen. Such efforts are not going to be around much longer. I find that Slocum had a superb sense of atmosphere. It is even more advanced than Tulip in that the sea environment is evoking an entire universe of isolation and imagination, making the film seem almost autobiographical about the silent journey of artists conquering their projects.

The movie brings a Tintin feel with its dialogue and spirit. One thing I missed that I feel made My Dog Tulip into what it was, was the voice acting and dialogue. It added a whole different universe to Tulip to counter the visuals on screen.

I feel voice actors could have helped this in the same way, though they were going for a sense of ambience and isolation here, because it still has a superb use of ambient sounds and effects.