Short Film, Short Review: LAND OF THE HEADS

Ah, thank you National Film Board of Canada. After exposing The Boy to the wonders of Bill Plympton earlier this evening - at his request, no less, I've trained him well - we had the opportunity to take a look at darkly humorous NFB co-production Land Of The Heads. Fans of Tim Burton or - more to the point - Henry Selick may very well have a pair of new favorite animators in Cédric Louis and Claude Barras, the creators of this macabre tale of a vampire harassed by his wife into collecting the heads of neighborhood children so that she can replace her own wrinkled visage with a younger, smoother model when all he really wants to do is stay in his coffin and play his accordion.

The design and animation work here is absolutely stellar, the story neatly balancing menace and humor for all ages. It manages to be deliciously ghoulish without ever veering into outright scares or the grotesque, teasing and taunting with a balanced sense of play. Hopefully this will soon be available for public consumption it its entirety but in the meantime I've got a trailer below the break.