6 Awesome Animated Sci-fi Shorts
The sci-fi genre is a playground for the imagination. So it's perfect for animators who want to create fantastic visuals or strange new worlds. Whether it's traditional 2d animation or digital CG animation, there are some brilliant short films out there and we have collected six of the very best for you to watch.
Animation and sci-fi were made for each other. The medium allows the imagination to run wild and animators can create exotic worlds and fantastic fictional creatures that the limits of reality would never allow.
The first animated sci-fi short was George Mélies' A Trip to the Moon in 1908. Technology and technique have advanced just a little since then but the raw creativity in that film has inspired filmmakers for decades since.
Although there has been plenty of brilliant traditional sci-fi animation over the years, the arrival of computer power and digital CGI has completely transformed the genre, allowing new styles to develop and flourish. Cheaply available tools like Unreal Engine have allowed animators to create hyper-realistic films that blur the line between animation and real life. Add the ever-increasing influence of gaming animation into the mix, and with CG animation, we may be getting a glimpse of filmmaking of the future.
This selection offers some of the best sci-fi animation shorts out there in the known galaxy and beyond.
There's a mix of traditional animation and digital and with the importance of CGI in filmmaking these days, I've included films that mix real life and CG.
Fans of short sci-fi films should also check out the Dust channel on youtube which is a treasure trove of delights.
1. Panic Attack! (Ataque de Pánico!) - Fede Álvarez
The story of Panic Attack! is an inspirational one for all aspiring filmmakers and has entered into Hollywood folklore, serving as a permanent reminder of the power of the internet and the importance of how one strong, well-executed idea can change a person's life.
Unknown young Uruguayan director Fede Álvarez made the 5 minute short for a purported budget of $300 and obviously pulled a lot of favours for the animated CGI of giant robots attacking the city of Montevideo.
He released the film on youtube on November 3rd 2009. The film started being shared extensively and somehow Kanye West saw a copy and shared it on his network. Suddenly the film exploded. A junior agent working in the mailroom at Hollywood mega-agency CAA also saw it and told his bosses about it. Álvarez said in an interview: "I uploaded Panic Attack! on a Thursday and on Monday my inbox was totally full of emails from Hollywood studios."
He was signed by Steven Spielberg's agent at CAA and soon landed a mega-dollar deal with Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures. He has since gone on to direct films like The Evil Dead, Don't Breathe and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake and he is developing the next film in the Alien franchise. Not bad for a $300 investment!
2. Love Death + Robots - Dir: various
Inspired by the seminal 1980s film Heavy Metal (which was based on the equally seminal comic magazine of the same name), Love Death + Robots is an anthology sci-fi series of short films created by production houses from around the world.
The series was in development for over 10 years, originally as an anthology feature and then as a series when Netflix eventually agreed to finance it. It's now in its third season and showcases some of the most stunning and cutting edge animation out there right now.
It's the love child of acclaimed director David Fincher and Deadpool director Tim Miller (whose own creative roots are in animation at Blur Studio where he got an Oscar nomination for his short Gopher Broke in 1995.
Each episode is diverse and unique. Themes of love, death and robots are explored (obvs) but it doesn't have to be all three in one film. This variety and willingness to experiment with styles, stories and techniques is a huge part of the appeal of the show and one of the reasons it has got such widespread praise.
The episode from Season 3 getting the most heat right now is Jibaro (directed by Spanish director Alberto Mielgo)… and rightly so. This story of a deaf knight and his epic battle against a deadly lake demon is sumptuous eye-candy with such detail in the 3D animation it's often hard to believe it's not real.
Some of the other most loved episodes include Zima Blue, Beyond the Aquila Rift and Good Hunting. The best one? It's impossible to say; but if you haven't seen them all yet, it's well worth spending a few hours watching them all and making up your own mind.
3. Contact - Katy Wang
Stranded on a remote planet, a lonely astronaut desperately sends out a signal in the hope of attracting someone. But will his signal be heard?
This is a beautiful and poignant short, perfectly paced and with a brilliant bittersweet ending. With a minimalist 2D style that incorporates airbrush and hand drawn techniques, it's a touching hymn to the human condition that we can all relate to.
Animation student Katy Wang created the film as her graduation project at Kingston University and it did well in festivals around the world. The sound design also deserves a big round of applause.
4. Best Friend - Dir: Nicholas Olivieri, Shen Yi, Juliana De Lucca, Varun Nair and David Feliu.
Another sci-fi short that explores the theme of loneliness and another student graduation film (this one from GOBELINS in France), but this one has a very different approach and is much darker and dystopian. The 2D animation style has a playful retro look, working in contrast to the more serious idea of a future where addiction is rampant and the only way to escape the isolation of urban life is to surround yourself with virtual friends.
It's a bleak vision of a not-too-distant future, where technology has taken over our lives and destroyed the fragile fabric of society, but it's smart, compelling, dramatic and visually beautiful.
5. The Gift - Carl Rinsch
Commercials director Carl Rinsch pulled out all the stops for this sci-fi short that was financed by Phillips for their Parallel Lines home cinema campaign. It's loaded with state-of-the-art CGI and even features a motorbike chase. It feels like a calling card for a director wanting to go on to direct a feature and indeed, off the back of this, Rinsch went on to direct 47 Ronin with Keanu Reeves (which unfortunately bombed and killed his Hollywood career).
But this is a slick piece of film-making with lush visuals. Made in 2010, the story is set in a futuristic Moscow where a robot tries to protect a precious gift that was given to his master.
Speaking of pristine white robots that find their humanity in futuristic post-communist sci-fi stories, a big shout must also go out to Czech animator Martin Duda who, a year earlier, created an eerily similar short I am Bigger and Better which won him a student Oscar. Coincidence? …Possibly.
6. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
This short veers more into the fantasy genre but it's so beautiful and moving, I couldn't resist including it. It's also a reminder that sci-fi doesn't always need to be about robots and spaceships but ultimately it's about the power of the imagination.
This film was created by Moonbot Studios in Louisiana, USA in 2011 and won the Oscar for best animated short next year.
The magical story tells the tale of Mr. Morris Lessmore who lives in New Orleans and survives a terrible storm (á la Hurricane Katrina) to find the city devastated afterwards. He wanders the ruins and finds himself in a library inhabited by flying books. Inspired by the wonder and beauty of the books, Morris becomes the impromptu librarian, restoring and caring for the books over the years until he becomes an old man and inspiring those around him with the knowledge they contain.
It's a story about the importance of culture and how preserving it can give hope to future generations. And it's a story about the magic of books.
The animation is a delight and plays with the use of colour - with black-and-white used to denote despair and colour used when that despair turns to hope.