REVIEW - FIRE SYNDROME (Directed by Jonathan Nolan)

Set in a futuristic alien world with a plot where "science turns on its creators due to the influence of a sinister force", FIRE SYNDROME promises to intrigue and entertain those with a liking for good stories and animated sci-fi, but sadly this short film doesn't really deliver on all fronts I had hoped.

After a strong cinematic title sequence with powerful music, we are immediately met with our crudely animated protagonist, Zu - an attractive blonde spacewoman with partially exposed cleavage, but sadly much of her allure is radically diminished by the manner in which she is permanently fidgeting as if having some sort of seizure, while her limbs are animated in such a way that it looks as though she has two elbows on each arm and two knees on each leg. The way her dialogue is entirely delivered in a monotone style devoid of expression as if she's had a lobotomy, doesn't help either.

To make things more interesting, several of the characters we meet in subsequent scenes seem to have been drawn by different animators in varying styles, some of which visually clash and do not feel right when placed together, with most looking like they've been abducted from the Clip Art library of a 90's Office abandonware package designed for Windows 3.1.

That said, I cannot be too harsh and many of the charac ters are fairly likeable, and not only are viewers treated to our sexed-up femme-fatale protagonist, but we also get served up a delightful yet noisy robot which we only see once in a rather protracted cut scene that has no explanation, a talking duck with a posh accent, and some kind of zebra thing having a conversation about ice cream with what looks like a goatman chimera created in a horrific lab experiment; unfortunately, however, sadly, none of these leaves much of an impact predominantly down to the fact that there is hardly any character development before viewers are thrown immediately into the story - where there are yet a few more issues. The plot itself really lacks a build up of any sort and seems quite convoluted for first-time viewers with fresh eyes to be able to pick up and follow with clarity, and to be honest I was lost for the vast majority of this short sci-fi cartoon. Lastly, more attention to classic film grammar would have helped to tell the story more effectively here, with a variety of shots and angles, including close-ups and wide shots being useful ways of achieving this which have not been employed here sadly.

By halfway through, I really couldn't work out whether or not our protagonist, Zu, is either bat-shit insane, constantly conversing with herself in a one-sided stream of insessent chit-chat, or if she is persistently breaking the fourth wall and addressing the viewer - but whatever the case, it's impossible to discern, because the crude animation of her face means it's not clear where she’s looking or who exactly she is talking to.

In terms of sound design, there is a lot that could be done to improve things, particularly working to get the voices and animation in sync more often would help, as well as fixing the audible hiss on the voice of one of the male characters, which is so consistently noticeable on all of his speech, that it would have been worth re-recording all of that character's dialogue from scratch. A broader range and variety of audio effects beyond voice-work would also help the sound design to feel a bit less barren and empty.

A number of detailed and beautiful 3D landscapes are chosen as backdrops for several of the scenes, but the way that these are combined with characters drawn and animated in 2D leaves the characters looking bizarrely out-of-place, wildly out of proportion, and warps the depth of field like some sort of nauseating optical illusion. On the plus side, the vehicle animation does looks impressive with the futuristic space rovers exploring the rugged moonscape-like scenes, with realistic lighting and shadows, but sadly, for me, this isn't enough to rescue this short film, and whilst there is some promise here and commendable effort, anyone who chooses to watch this hoping for a modern re-imagining of Bucky O'Hare is going to be sorely disappointed.

3/10.