Nick Cross' Waif of Persephone

Nick Cross is a very talented animator who you may know from his work on Ren & Stimpy. He has just released his latest film, "The Waif of Persephone" on DVD . I just got my copy last night, and I watched it twice in a row (which is not something I do often) and I will be watching it again soon. I really love it. I reccommend this film to any fan of animation, but not so much to the casual viewer of cartoons because not everyone will "get" it. It is a weird film... The bizarrely grotesque, distorted face animations of the elves are great. The animations of the Waif, especially when she sings, are truly disturbing. The uncomfortably long pauses, such as the scene with the elves standing in an empty room for an oddly long time, completely crack me up. I love the simple but elegant background paintings. The psychotically cute forest animals are also frightening. And the dark, poignant ending left me sad for the world, but happy that this film was made. It's not a "perfect" film, in that it's not a slick, hollywood type cartoon. It's got an unpretentious rawness that makes it particularly good. I can see "the artist's hand" in this film- I feel like I'm watching Nick draw every frame. It's one of my favorite new animated films of recent years, and I'm really happy to have it in my collection. Nick spent four years making it, and he should be proud. Go check out Nick Cross' Plog to see artwork and clips from this film.