Technological Threat

Last updated
Technological Threat
Directed by Bill Kroyer
Story byBill Kroyer
Rich Moore
Brian Jennings [1]
Produced byBill Kroyer
Animation by Greg Vanzo
Rich Moore
Susan Kroyer
Chris Bailey
Rob Minkoff
Alan Smart [2]
Production
company
Distributed byShorts International (current) [3]
Release dates
Running time
5 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Technological Threat is a 1988 American animated short made by Brian Jennings and Bill Kroyer and was produced by Kroyer Films. It was an example of early computer animation, integrated with traditional animation, and is itself an allegory for the possibilities of combining the two. [4] The robots and backgrounds were drawn based on computer-generated 3D models, [5] while the dogs and wolves were drawn by hand.

Contents

Plot

The film takes place in an office staffed by wolves who hand-copy documents using pencils. One of them passes out because of overwork. The bulldog boss pushes a button that carries him through a trapdoor below the worker's desk, and replaces him with a robot that writes faster. Another yawns, and is also dropped through a trapdoor under his desk and replaced by a robot. Three more are eliminating for drinking water, sneezing and injury (one of them desperately plugs his nose with two pencils, but is unable to keep from sneezing, propelling the pencils into another's head). They are replaced by more robots. The remaining worker, madly scribbling away, is shocked to discover that his boss has been replaced by a boss robot. When the latter leaves, the last worker decides to take action, and begins destroying the robots in various cartoony ways (blowing one up with a stick of dynamite, dropping another through its desk trapdoor, yet another by hitting it with different objects, and electrically shocking another into a pile of cinders). As the worker and the one remaining robot are locked in a life-or-death struggle, they see the boss robot threatening to push the trapdoor button. In a sudden instance of cooperating, they shove the trapdoor beneath the boss robot, who falls in. As the two workers peer down the open trapdoor, the remaining worker becomes aware of the opportunity being presented and shoves the robot in thus ending the film with a cigar in his hand and eventually pushing the trapdoor button on the viewer. [6]

Credits

Staff

The film's credits give "special thanks to" Brad Bird, Yutaka Fujioka, Mike Giaimo, Masami Hata, Gábor Csupó, and Bill Hedge.

Accolades and legacy

Technological Threat was featured on the VHS and DVD Computer Animation Festival, Vol. 2 and Computer Animation Festival Vol. 3 (renamed Computer Animation Experience in 2001). [7] It also aired in the second third-season episode of Liquid Television , in 1993.

At the 1988 Ottawa International Animation Festival, Technological Threat shared the prize for "Best film under 5 minutes" with Paul Vester's Picnic. [8] It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1989, but lost to a fully CGI short: Pixar's Tin Toy . [9] [10] It also won the Apollo Award at the Annecy Animation Festival. [11]

It was also part of the International Tournee of Animation alongside fellow Oscar nominee The Cat Came Back . [12]

The Academy Film Archive preserved Technological Threat in 2013. [13]

Related Research Articles

The term independent animation refers to animated shorts and feature films produced outside a major national animation industry.

Klasky-Csupo, Inc., is an American animation studio located in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1982 by producer Arlene Klasky and Hungarian animator Gábor Csupó in a spare room of their apartment and grew to 550 artists, creative workers and staff in an animation facility in Hollywood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Plympton</span> American illustrator, animator, and film director

Bill Plympton is an American animator, graphic designer, cartoonist, and filmmaker best known for his 1987 Academy Awards-nominated animated short Your Face and his series of shorts featuring a dog character starting with 2004's Guard Dog.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cel shading</span> Computer graphics rendering technique used to mimic the look of 2D animation

Cel shading or toon shading is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make 3-D computer graphics appear to be flat by using less shading color instead of a shade gradient or tints and shades. A cel shader is often used to mimic the style of a comic book or cartoon and/or give the render a characteristic paper-like texture. There are similar techniques that can make an image look like a sketch, an oil painting or an ink painting. The name comes from cels, clear sheets of acetate which were painted on for use in traditional 2D animation.

<i>Nicktoons Film Festival</i> American TV series or program

The Nicktoons Film Festival was an annual event that was created by producer Fred Seibert and produced for its first three years by his Frederator Studios.

Gábor Csupó is a Hungarian-American animator, writer, director, producer and graphic designer. He is co-founder of the animation studio Klasky Csupo, which has produced shows like Rugrats, Duckman, Stressed Eric, and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Pinkava</span> Czech-British-American writer and animator

Jan Jaroslav Pinkava is a Czech-British-American producer, director, writer, and animator. He directed the Pixar short film Geri's Game and served as co-director and co-wrote the story for Ratatouille, both of which went on to win Oscars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pannonia Film Studio</span> Animation studio in Budapest, Hungary

Pannonia Film Studio was the largest animation studio in Hungary, based in the capital of Budapest. It was formed in 1951, becoming independent in 1957. The studio is said to have closed sometime around 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Bailey (animator)</span> American animator and film director

Chris Bailey is an American animator and film director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Kroyer</span> American animator

William Kroyer is an American director of animation and computer graphics commercials, short films, movie titles, and theatrical films. He and Jerry Rees were the main animators for the CGI sequences in Tron. He is currently the head of the Digital Arts department at Lawrence and Kristina Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcell Jankovics</span> Hungarian film director (1941–2021)

Marcell Jankovics was a Hungarian graphic artist, film director, animator and author. He is best known for the animated films Johnny Corncob and Son of the White Mare.

Kroyer Films, Inc. was a pioneering animation studio formed in 1986 by animator Bill Kroyer and his wife Susan Kroyer and is one of the earliest studios to combine computer and hand-drawn animation.

Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis are a Canadian animation duo. On January 24, 2012, they received their second Oscar nomination, for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) animated short film, Wild Life (2011). With their latest film, The Flying Sailor, they received several nominations and awards, including for the Best Canadian Film at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, and on January 24, 2023, they received a nomination for the 95th Academy Awards under the category Best Animated Short Film.

<i>Adam</i> (1992 film) 1992 British film

Adam is a 1992 British stop-motion clay animated short film written, animated and directed by Peter Lord of Aardman Animations. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short and the BAFTA Film Award for Short Animation in 1992, and won two awards at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in 1993. It is based on the beginning of the Book of Genesis. It was distributed by Aardman Animations.

<i>Inner Workings</i> 2016 American film

Inner Workings is a 3D hand-drawn and computer-animated adventure short film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. It is written and directed by Leo Matsuda and produced by Sean Lurie. It premiered in theaters on November 23, 2016 along with Walt Disney Pictures' Moana.

TVPaint Animation is a 2D paint and digital animation software package developed by TVPaint Developpement SARL based in Lorraine, France. Originally released for Amiga in 1991, version 3.0 (1994) introduced support for other platforms. In 1999, the last Amiga version 3.59 was released as free download. TVPaint Animation currently runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, and Android operating systems.

The Big Story is a 1994 British animated film by Tim Watts and David Stoten from Spitting Image Productions and starring Frank Gorshin.

<i>Daughter</i> (2019 film) 2019 Czech film

Daughter is a 2019 Czech short animated drama film directed by Daria Kashcheeva. The film received 38 awards during half a year after its premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, including the Annecy Cristal for the best film in the graduation films category, and a Student Academy Award. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

<i>The Windshield Wiper</i> 2021 American film

The Windshield Wiper is a 2021 Spanish-American computer-cel adult animated short film directed and co-produced by Alberto Mielgo alongside Leo Sánchez. The film won the award for Best Animated Short Film at the 94th Academy Awards.

<i>An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It</i> 2021 Australian film

An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It is a 2021 Australian stop motion animated short written, directed and animated by student filmmaker Lachlan Pendragon.

References

  1. ↑ Letterboxd
  2. ↑ MUBI
  3. ↑ Amazon.com
  4. ↑ Computers & The Oscars——Best Animated Short Film - CHM
  5. ↑ The film's credits explain that the robotic "Dweeb", the "Blocky Boss", and all backgrounds were rendered on a Silicon Graphics IRIS 3120 workstation and Softimage 3D.
  6. ↑ FilmAffinity
  7. ↑ Amazon.com: Computer Animation Adventure & Experience
  8. ↑ Ottawa International Animation Festival 1988 Edition
  9. ↑ Short Film Winners: 1989 Oscars
  10. ↑ 1989|Oscars.org
  11. ↑ Film Index
  12. ↑ A NEW IMAGE FOR ANIMATION SOPHISTICATION SETS THE TONE AT K.U.|The Morning Call
  13. ↑ "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.