Sintel

This still is the best blender animation studio open movie I've ever seen so far. I was hooked onto it right from the moment Sintel found the baby dragon, took care of it, till the tragic end. Even with blender's basic computer graphics, the story's still emotional enough to grasp anyone's attention.

maybe, it is more than a masterpiece. for refined construction of levels of story. for the hard work of a great team. for message. and for memories. for the end. and for the deep poetry of story. a story of love. not ordinary. full of dramatic situations. and convincing. like a parable. or, just like a trip across memories. a film remembering , for me, the Petre Ispirescu fairy tale "Youth everlasting and life without end ". sure, not same end. but the same essence.

This is a top quality animated film and i don't want to leave any spoilers. Just watch it and you won't be disappointed. If I had to make one small criticism it would be that the girl didn't appear to get any older, if they had made her age gradually through the quest maybe added the tattoos as she gets older changed her features and body shape slightly, hair colour ect it would have made the ending much more poinient.

Good story and great animation, I stumbled on to this and really enjoyed it.

I watched this film for the first time today and it was not by chance. I knew of this film as I have seen some other films made using the open source Blender software and I was aware that this film was not only made using that tool but that the whole film is open to be used and changed by anyone who wishes to do so. The irony of this is that currently the film has been removed by YouTube due to a copyright claim by Sony that the film somehow violates their property, a situation that tells me Sony used part of the film (music or otherwise) and are now claiming it as their own, thus entirely missing the point of what this film and others like it are trying to do.

Hopefully this will be resolved although it is depressing to see that even the suggestion of infraction from a corporation sees the project removed. Anyway, in terms of the film itself, away from such controversy, the narrative sees a young woman travelling alone deep into the mountain and into danger. An encounter with a bandit leaves her injured but rescued by an old man, to whom she relates the reason for her journey – a journey which begins with her finding an injured baby dragon some time before.

The headlines all relate to the technical aspects of this film so it is worth saying that the narrative engages too. It is a solid tale that draws you in but is built on darkness. It is a combination that doesn't totally work and although I applaud the ending for going in the direction it did, it is brutally harsh just to drop that on a viewer. Technically the film is very well made, the animation is great and it is hard to believe that it was made outside of a large studio – not only is this cheering but it actually works and looks great throughout.

Sintel represents another step forward in the idea of the creative commons being a positive and collaborative idea and Blender in particular being something about moving forward; however this is not to say that this is where its value comes from because really the short stands up on its own, looking great and having a brutal but memorably brave narrative too. If there was ever a greater example of the need to support such projects, it is the fact that Sony have challenged it for taking their property.