The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello

This was a wonderful film visually--with an artistry and style that were truly unique. The machines and people are created in an unusual fashion--using mostly sepia tones and blacks as well as never showing details of the people's faces. Instead, the people are very reminiscent of Asian shadow puppets. You really just need to see it to understand how unusual this all looks--but it sure is very striking.

The story takes place in an alternate reality--a planet where steam-powered flying machines are common. Additionally, there is a bizarre plague breaking out and this, combined with the shadows and colors, creates a truly dark story. Making it worse, the story itself if very cold and creepy--truly macabre.

If you can get past how weird and disturbing it all is, then you'll probably love this film. I didn't particularly enjoy all the death, but because of the artistry and vision I still strongly recommend it to viewers with a relatively open mind.

This film, by the way, is very similar in spirit to another animated short, THE PERIWIG-MAKER (1999)--both having a theme that revolves around plague and both films are amazingly beautiful but dark.

This short, which was nominated for an Academy Award, is a form of stop-motion where the figures are primarily shot in silhouette to make them darker and to heighten the overall mood of terror and suspense. The technique is perfectly suited to the story being told, which has so many literary and cinematic influences that its hard to know where to begin.

In addition to the more obvious suspects (Poe, Verne, Wells, et cetera) I would also add Bram Stoker and a sub-genre of Science Fiction/Fantasy called "steampunk", which Lucas himself has cited as an influence. Novels like The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling and Lord Kelvin's Machine by James P. Blaylock (both highly recommended, though not as dark as Morello, if you like the basic idea of a high(er)-tech Victorian England) are excellent examples of "steampunk" and I would be a bit surprised if Lucas hasn't read at least one or both. The feel is certainly there.

One warning: this is NOT a short for children, especially young children. There are at least two scenes unsuited for anyone younger than 12 or 13. This is available on an all-region DVD made in Australia. Most highly recommended.

The short film form restricts the storyline of a film, making it very intense and preventing huge amounts of plot detail. To be effective the director Anthony Lucas has to be very creative, and The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello does this remarkably well. The silhouette style creates a perfect Gothic, industrial feel and is very effective in transporting you immediately to a distant but still familiar world of huge lumbering airships, cogs and smoke, and mysterious creatures. It is a fantasy that is also very real; it draws on the 'what-might-have-been' of steampunk, blending the genre's idea of advanced Victorian society with the dark imagery of Lucas' Shadowlands.

The extras on the DVD are also very good - included are other short films by the same director and his commentary about the making of the film (very interesting). Well worth it.

As short horror films go, this is one of the best I've seen in recent years. The story is genuinely chilling and the cut-out animation style is a perfect fit for old-fashioned narrative. Capturing the creepy essence of classic writers like Blackwood, Lovecraft, and Poe, this film is a mini-masterpiece and well worth tracking down. Fans of animation may notice a slight stylistic resemblance to some of the works of the brilliant Karel Zeman, although Zeman's work was seldom as intense or scary. The only problem I have with the film is that the disk is PAL encoded and won't play on standard North American DVD players.

The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello is absolutely amazing, and deserves a huge audience.

The film is set in a world that resembles Victorian England, but different, in that giant mechanical airships are the main mode of transport. Jasper Morello is a navigator who undertakes a dangerous expedition into uncharted territory in order to escape from his plague-addled city. The film has a Jules Verne-like sense of wonder and imagination that is irresistibly appealing.

The distinctive look of 'Jasper Morello' deserves the many accolades which will definitely follow in due course. The characters are rendered in layers of silhouettes, a look which must be seen to be fully appreciated. The design of the airships and of the world in which they float in is masterful.

The combination of Victorian-era story and cutting-edge animation makes for an extremely enjoyable film, one that should be seen by both children and adults.