Purple Grey

An animator makes a cup of tea and sits at his desk to do some work. However his morning instead becomes one of just futtering around and failing to produce anything of interest. However in small, tired flashes he finds that ideas are coming to him if only he can grab them and get them onto paper.

The idea is simple but offered much for the animator (making the film, not in it) to work with as it contrasted a desk-bound figure with flashed images of whatever he wanted to show. Sadly this film does not make the best of this idea and actually drags on too long not doing much with it. The animation is technically sound but I found it rather dull and basic. I'm sure it was hard work to generate but there didn't seem to be a lot behind it in terms of individualism and imagination. The flashes are well delivered but seem obvious and aren't as rich as I would have liked – they are effective within the need of the film telling this story but that's about it.

The clunky and obvious point of the final few shots didn't help win me over either and I was left with the impression of a rather basic animation in everything from concept to delivery. I'm sure it was hard work and I appreciate Buerkner putting himself out there but I'm afraid that this did nothing for me and was the weakest of the five Animate! short films that have been screening together.