Tales of Isolation

Dark twisted and frequently funny Tales of Isolation is a wonderful half hour collection of short Claymation style animation from Omar MrOz

The dozen or so tales are filled with lots of odd creatures, monsters, aliens, zombies and other strange sights. There is much blood violence and humor, none of which is really mean spirited or cruel (well some of it is).

I find it exceedingly difficult to talk about any film that runs only two or three minutes because in doing so you run the risk of completely spoiling the small little confection. Such is the case with several of the films in this neat little collection. However despite that I do have to mention a few of the wonderful delights:

RECESSION 2009 has zombies sitting at home decaying seemingly because they don’t have the money to go out.

ALIEN AUTOPSY is a battle between aliens on a spaceship.

HOLIDAY WEEKEND s a zombies breaking into a house.

THE VISUOSPACIAL SKETCHPAD has weird creatures spinning blocks and a shark.

THE LAA LAAS is the conversation between two people who only say Laa Laa.

These are all truly small gems

What also is a gem is the technical wizardry that Omar Mroz shows. First off except for one film you’d never know that human hands had anything to do with them, there are no tell tale finger prints in the clay. The animation is flawless.

Also flawless is how the puppets move. Normally when one works in clay there is a tendency for animators to move the models in weird ways. Most animators will add joints and motion points to a character but Mroz doesn’t.  Watch the alien battle in ALIEN AUTOPSY at no point does either character more in a way that isn’t real. The joints in their limbs remain constant. Its a small thing but it adds a great deal to the film.

My only complaint with the DVD that I picked up at NY Comiccon is that there are three "bonus" live action shorts. None of them are particularly good, actually all of them are the sort of thing that you'd trip over yourself in leaving the room if a relative showed you. I just jumped past all of them since they show none of the skill the animated films do.

For those wanting to see the films, they can be found on the You Tube Tales of Isolation Channel.

Or if you want to buy the DVD go here