Before Sunrise

Some strange little burned out flames inhabit the darkness in a beautiful city. One of them is focused one of them is featured as he goes into a library where an old man sleeps and a candle burns on the table. The candle flirts with him, but he burns his hand trying to respond to him (I'm assuming it's a him). It is the dark reality here that is most enticing.

This is a very imaginative CGI short about, of all things, some sort of gremlin-like sprite that runs about during the night--mostly creating mischief. However, in the midst of the revelry, he catches the eye of a lady--in the form of a flame in a candle. Both ideas are very strange and it's even stranger yet when the sprite falls in love with this seemingly impossible "flame".

The main standouts of the animation are the weirdness of the tale (it's nice to see something unique) and the quality of the animation and music. While I wouldn't agree that the animation was of as high a quality as the other reviewer mentioned, it still is laudable and I admire the hard work and ingenuity that went into this film. For short film fans, like myself, it's well worth a viewing.

I saw this at the 2006 Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films as part of the Once Upon A Time Program. This is a cinematically beautiful film from Ireland and director/writer Kealon O'Rourke. This is a computer animated short in the artistic style of great Disney animated classics like Fantasia. A dance-like motion of fantasy creatures frolic among the sweeping city vistas in this Gothic tale of fleeting love. Before sunrise the creatures of the night are most active before they give way to the day and shadow creatures abound in their carefree nocturnal mischief. Another creature of the night is the flame of candle burning in an upper story window. She is burning later than usual as her master as fallen asleep and she catches the eye of one of the night shadows. They certainly aren't compatible but he catches her eye too. Beautiful look to this and a nice little story. I would give this a 9.5 out of 10.

Once I discovered this short movie on deviantArt. While it's still watchable there (if you don't know where to look for it), I indeed had to watch it periodically. The beautiful story, the atmosphere of this old village at night and the formidable music made me unable to forget about it. Tonight I had to watch it one more time, and I decided to look for its music online. So I googled the composer and quickly arrived here at IMDb - positively surprised this short movie is even listed.

I can only recommend this movie, especially if you like romantic fairy tales around ancient villages!