From Indonesia comes a 4-min animation totally produced by Alan Dharmasaputra, that looks like something that truly deserves to be developed into a more articulated story.
“Scooped!” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
9 “criminals” with some very non-criminal nicknames (The Fair, The Honest, The Discipline, The Casual, The Independent, The Care, The Responsible, The Brave and The Hard-worker) are planning to rob a bank. After an accurate (or, is it?) preparation, the day of the heist arrives. In the bank they scream and hold guns like proper robbers, but they are also quite caring with the people and they even offer a hot meal to the security guard, in case he gets hungry while being held prisoner. The big target, the vault, is now so close they can touch it, but a surprise waits for them inside the vault.
A classic storyline, where the robbers are introduced one by one in the typical fashion of “big heist” genre, also meets the always captivating sub-genre of the looser-robbers. The 9 characters of this animation are indeed very likable despite the evil expressions they try to keep, and their clumsiness make them even more relatable. Moreover, the final scene has a crowd-pleaser bit of a socio-economical commentary.
The pace is fast, the rhythm tight and the storytelling clear and effective. While the animation is relatively simple, the graphic and the bold contrast of the blue and orange palette makes it very dynamic and flashy and the funky score is a perfect complement.
This little teaser is an introduction to the characters and gang members, and it looks ready to be continued. It has all the numbers to be turned into a longer story or, even better, a series of episodes. Good luck to the director.
