Jibaro

Love, Death & Robots is one of those rare shows where I wind up raising my score for each new season and, true to the show's MO of giving small creators the floor to push the boundaries of CG (It's more of a variety show than a strict TV series), the latest one contains some of the most genuinely fascinating sequences I've seen in years. While I have a soft spot for the very small zombies, the Scottish man with the peculiar rat problem, and certainly the artful, Valerian et Laureline-esque voyage across the seemingly-sentient dunes of Io, none of the new shorts moved/disturbed/haunted me quite like Alberto Mielgo's Jibaro. Mixing stylization with realism, it's one of the most transporting (yet timely) retellings of folklore I've seen in years and certainly the most memorable -- it's one of those pieces of visual media where I clearly and distinctly still remember sounds and images from it; the shrieks of the golden siren, the helpless knights in their enchanted dance, et cetera.

As someone whose childhood revolved around animated shorts an inordinate amount (what with his dad being a VFX programmer who always downloaded the latest tech demos after a business trip to SIGGRAPH), I'm just really happy that this even exists. And if I must regard it as "a TV show", 'tis fast becoming my favorite one on Netflix.

I am confident in saying that this, as of May 20, 2022, is the single most realistic animated short film ever made. Period. It is simply stunning how real it looks. Thinking about the amount of work this must have taken makes my head hurt. The water, reflections, foliage, physics, EVERYTHING, looks real. A bunch of people won't appreciate the achievement this is because its... different. Its strange and beautiful and its a monument to how far technology has come. There is a lot that can make you think, "Oh, this is fake," without you even realizing it. You'll see a weird texture or something won't fall the right way or light won't be reflected correctly, and that is all it takes to make you realize what you are seeing is computer generated, so in order for you to perceive something as real, EVERYTHING has to work, there can be no mistakes. This is as close to perfect (it is not perfect, but WOW is it close) in this regard as we've gotten so far. This is as close as we've ever come to bridging the uncanny valley...

I wonder how long it took to render :)

Watching it for the animation and the cinematography just by itself is enough, but the story is also intriguing.

Dark and gory, spectacular dancing. A good episode to end season 3.

This episode is literally a work of art to be watched in silence that leaves you speechless, the scenic rendering of everything is beautiful and in its strange seriousness you can also glimpse sudden parts that tear a smile, truly a work of art.

Out of all the episodes, this affected more than the others. The visuals blew me away and I am on my 3rd watch. The episodes is longer than the others, but takes you on a roller coaster. It is one of those episodes where you slowly work out what is going on, but oh so worth enduring it. OMG...season 3 just keeps giving.