I’ll be in Ontario for the next five days at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. Some brief scattered comments before I leave:

One Hour Photo was a stale and boring waste of 95 minutes. I went to see it based on the strength of some decent reviews and the fact that it looked subtly creepy, and while I’ll concede that the production design (particularly set design and lighting) was exceptional, the story was practically nonexistent. The recipe: 1) Take one socially awkward loner on the verge of mild psychosis. 2) Mix with “the perfect family.” 3) Film the foursome milling about and conversing blankly in the blandest of suburban banality. It reminded me of a crappy 5-page short story I cranked out in a couple hours for a creative writing final in high school, except it was much, much longer.

Moments ago, I was introduced to NoiseRover, which is host to some gorgeously designed and truly bizarre Flash animations, certainly some of the nicest and most original I’ve seen in quite awhile.