The Adventures of Shart Boy and Larvae Girl: 3D

Can neither comprehend nor stop laughing at.

Heroes and villains collide in an epic 3D battle.

Obviously an easy fan favourite, there's visually quite a bit going on in this high-octane battle scene between good and evil. We spend a good minute or two on clever character introductions which while funny doesn't really create much story apart from exasperating our leads. And no doubt story is secondary anyway in this short which is all about the visuals including camera splatters, exploding heads, exploding buildings, hot swords, piñata treats - you name it; it's probably there somewhere. Looks good, sounds good and it's classic Herms in terms of fast paced editing and humour. 3D was a clever quirk - always like getting some 3D specs.

So overall, it's a bucket-load of fun and a good time had by all. Just not too much in the way of story if that's your thing.

Maybe I'm overthinking this and I was just caught up in the energy at the screening... but Herms Heroes have an incredible ability to maintain energy and momentum.
Camera movement, music and editing keep a minute and a half of people being introduced lively. I think this is most prevalent in their "24 Hours" entry from last year which is kind of just a guy running around fighting a mannequin but it's actually kind of adrenaline-inducing (https://youtu.be/jmK0HQEpgZ0).
The other thing keeping the energy going is the constant changing of techniques. From 3D to abruptly stopping the 3D, greenscreen, reversed footage, a dummy, miniature work and then a section of the film which seems to have been printed onto paper and had effects drawn with crayon??
I won't talk about the lack of story because the team is obviously aware of that.
I'm just amazed that they put so much together in a weekend. All the costumes, animation and a "cardboard cathedral".

My only criticism is that the Rubba Monkey didn't fight a Digital Pigeon.

Herms Heroes strikes again! Never change who you are.

Would be great to see it again at finals given it's unique elements, and I just really want to see you handing out 3D glasses to everyone in the Entx Theatre.

I've found a nice spot on my shelve for the glasses you gave me last night, they will be forever treasured.

Stunning, energetic camera work which stomps all over the "chip commercial" look any day in my book.

While the decision to present the film in 3d was a technically ambitious element, I would have loved to see more of a narrative thrust, and a little more spectacle.

Some really awesome animated elements on display here; I've never seen a film play with the medium to such a degree, and I really hope to see more of that in future. I think this film questions what exactly a 48 hour film can be, and really commits to a direction in a way so many entries don't.

What I liked:
Ambitious as always from the Heroes, and I'm stoked to once again see this team opt for less of a story, and more of a fun comedic experience. Fuck storytelling, sometimes all you need to get into the finals is several funny character concepts and the gaul to go 3D.

What I didn't like:
All of that being said, I don't think this hits anywhere near the comedic heights of Cop Out from '22 which remains the funniest 48 I think I've ever seen. There are some great gags in this (The robot named They/Them and the repeated crash zoom on Larvae Girl gasping were two of my faves of the year), but I think it ultimately lacked the whisper of a narrative thread and escalation that made Cop Out so genius.

Something else I liked:
The little animated section I thought was really fresh and interesting, and I think if you'd had a little more time, I'd have loved to have seen even more approaches to telling this story beyond it just being 3D and 15 seconds of animation - maybe that's what was needed to make this film soar for me - sure it's just a list of funny characters with funny costumes and funny names, but if we'd gone from 3D to animation to Black and White to cartoon to comic book to several other mediums, maybe that would have made it pop a little more.