The Drop

The film so good they played it twice! This film definitely stood out as an audience favorite - with its sometimes awkward pacing and gags seeming to land pretty effectively. Animation is always an endeavor with 48, but animated split-screen is a whole nother ballgame. A fun, funny, impressive effort from a talented team.

Had me laughing right till the bitter end.

no lego?? NO LEGO??? WHAT IS THIS WORLD?? AM I IN THE DARKEST TIMELINE???? No Im not because Dog's Breakfast 2d animation is equally as good and memorable as their lego masterpieces. In fact the lack of lego meant i didn't have a part of my brain focusing on how cool their lego skills are and could fully concentrate on their script etc. A very very nice wee film with excellent use of ULTRA. felt like a hilarious animated episode of 24. If you go this route again in the future maybe you could see if you can get more expressions out of your characters as their blank eyed smiles didn't really change with the voice performances. But honestly that was quite charming to me. I loved it. the film so nice we saw it twice, well one and half times at least. good work forma great stalwart team.

Hilarious! well done.

This was a textbook case of playing things smart, not hard. Which is not to say that there wasn't a lot of hard work that went into the film, there definitely was, but it was clear that it was made with a practical attitude and an eye on the prize of getting it done. The animation was simplistic, but that was fine. This was an ultra film, and even though it teeeechnically broke the rules by having a moment without splitscreen, (it really was just a moment before a phone screen popped up) it still necessitated twice as many shots which meant a significantly higher number of things they needed to draw up. The story was nothing especially novel, but it was handled with care and ran really smoothly. It had great atmosphere and the performances were well done.

Amazing effort - Ultra/animation/solo - I loved the use of split screen and thought the comedy was was great - nice timing. All in all, great job

This was great. You used split screen perfectly - it was easy to follow and you knew where to look when you needed to, and then other times it allowed you to enjoy looking around and learning more detail, without ever loosing sense of the overall story. Some really solid bits of animation in there, specially some of those falling shots! Agree with some others around needing a little more variety in the facial expressions, but in saying that - the dude smiling the whole time totally played up the lie he was trying to keep up with his wife... Really impressed - must be tough in Auckland... reckon this would have had a shot at the finals in another city!

I'm going through all the 2019 films in the screening room, this is my 22nd review and although it's the 4th one I've awarded 6 stars it's the only one of those I was tempted to give 7 stars to (hovering close to 6.5). The mission was second fiddle to the hilarious conversation with the wife he couldn't brush off. Wish I could do animation, it frees you to be able to do any story that pops to mind regardless of weather it could be filmed in real life. I reckon you have the talent to work on real animated films.

I think I will always be impressed on some level by animated films that compete in the 48 hours. There is a tendency towards a more simplistic aproach however the ammount of work that goes into them can be intimidating to think about. Especially if you are doing a split screen film after opting for ultra. This film, if you haven't already watched it in the screening room is an animated Ultra film. It's an interesting premise, you've got a secret agent doing a halo jump into an enemy base or something for his secret mission when he gets a phone call from his wife and being the diligent husband that he is, he answers the phone to have a conversation about the more mundane side of his life. I think if I were to say anything it's that the pacing was kind of slow and the performances didn't really have the energy that an animated film calls for. Perhaps this is to people's taste and reflects a laid back kiwi asthetic or something but I'm not really into that I guess. The opening shot was pretty incredible and the use of split screen seemed pretty solid to me. Good stuff.

A secret agent is given his orders to make the destruction of a base look like an accident, but as he takes his titular drop out of the aeroplane, his cellphone rings with a completely naive bitchy wife on the other line. Whilst he gets ready to pull the cord, she pulls his strings about housework and social engagement in typical laidback kiwi fashion. The usage of Ultra split screen here was absolutely fantastic, utilising a comic book panel style approach but knowing exactly how to keep things engaging, with decisive editing decisions to keep one panel at the centre of the viewer's attention, yet utilising the others to give the film more of a scope coverage. The result is it actually elevates the film in that respect compared to most other Ultras I've seen this year. Frigging fantastic sound design and impressive scope of animation pulled off. Probably just judge's personal preferences keeping this out of the Auckland final. Good voice work too. I did notice the characters dead seem a little deadpan due to no emotion in their faces like other reviewers which would probably also be my only minor qualm. Thanks for uploading, though!