Ed Hooks made a point in his lecture that reminded me of “Mau, an Esma student’s animation that I watched recently.
He had been talking about cluing in the viewer on how to react, using the overall appearance and feel of your animation. And this piece, despite being very good, caught me off guard a bit.
As you saw, the story is about two stray cats in ancient Egypt. One of them, Kiphy abandons his responsibility’s to live a life of luxury in the palace.
The other cat is enraged to find that now Kiphy has the power to help the others he deigns not to, and confronts him. So far the story felt smooth and entertaining to me.
However Kiphy’s charge of heart is a little too abrupt when he gives his place in the palace to the other mangy cat. But the bit I found most jarring was the twist that the cat that is now taking this place in the palace is immediately taken away to be buried with the now dead pharaoh.
I also felt that the story could have been more compelling, had there been a definite sign of betrayal when Kiphy chose to leave. I.e. if they had both been trying to carry the milk and he dropped it to follow the pharaoh. The viewer would have felt more solidly behind the skinny cat.
A clue that the dark twist was coming, with some ominous music or something might also have been good.
Although I was caught off guard by the twist in this story, I really liked the overall idea. This is still fantastic piece of student work!
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