Dieselpunk Animation: A Hard Life

Most of my readers have seen the advertisement for the web browser Bing in which a person asks a seemingly innocuous question and is overwhelmed as everyone begins acting like zombies stating random bits of information. But I take exception with this advertisement because I find that it’s amazing what one can inadvertently find on the web while surfing for something altogether different. Not long ago I had the good fortune of randomly running across a short animated trailer titled "A Hard Life" made by the Romanian company Genius Film.

The story of "A Hard Life" involves a cricket and a hamster that go to New York City in the 1930s to find the hamster's family. In the opening scene the viewer is treated with the fantastic view of flying over and through Manhattan. The majority of the brief trailer involves the cricket and hamster meeting a fly as well as a bizarre mouse who are both obsessed with a lamp. There is also a nicely made brief scene at the end involving the famed Cotton Club.

New York 1930 - 3D Animation from Genius Film on Vimeo.

According to their web site Genius Films is, "A full service production company, Genius Films provides a complete range of film/video production, 2D/3D animation & VFX services for the motion picture, television and advertising industry, which includes arranging for production crews, key production personnel, equipment rental, sound stages, casting, stunt men and everything in between at significantly reduced prices." If this trailer is any indication then they certainly have a highly talented staff.

I've contacted the production company about "A Hard Life" and was informed by Ovidiu Halmagean, Produce/ CEO of Genius Film that unfortunately it was a project that never was completed into a full film so all we have is this brief little gem made by some very talented and creative professionals.

"A Hard Life," is great fun and perfect for the whole family.