Fetch!

This short animated film is included with the DVD for SITA SINGS THE BLUES (also by Nina Paley).

The animation style is very simple--with a dog and a master that are a single color and with very rudimentary features. The man throws a ball to the dog. Then, he throws it again at which point it all gets very weird and simply cannot be further described. Suffice to say that it defies description.

While I didn't love this film, I sure could respect it--especially since this is Ms. Paley's first film listed on IMDb. For a young and inexperienced animator, it's very nice. The problem, however, is that the story is practically non-existent and it does not seem to have a whole lot of commercial value. Still, packaged with SITA, it does make a nice addition and is worth a quick look, as it's only 4 minutes long.

Fetch! (2002)

*** (out of 4)

If you check out the end credits you'll see that Nina Paley not only wrote and directed this four-minute short but she did just about everything under the sun on it. The story is pretty simple as a human shape throws a red ball to his blue dog. Yes, that's pretty much all of the story, which isn't really enough for a narrative film but I'm not so certain that was the point of the film. As far as recent animation goes, this here is pretty impressive and especially the way Paley handles what happens inside of the frame. It really does seem like you've got a 4:3 white background and then all the action takes place within a single frame. From time to time what happens in the film varies and it can change at any moment but I thought visually the film was very impressive. Would some sort of story helped? Perhaps but as far as a fun visual ride goes, this here is certainly worth watching.