Salesman Pete and the Amazing Stone From Outer Space! is a beautifully designed and wonderfully realized, if somewhat nonsensical, animated short by the team of Marc Bouyer, Max Loubaresse and Anthony Vivien, with music by Cyrille Marchesseau and sound design by Mael Vignaux.
Involving a clumsy but super powered salesman protagonist, a villain with, er,.. appendages, and a stone from outer space that turns whatever it touches into seafood, the animation careens, tilts, bounces, wobbles and rockets through numerous scenes, each beautifully designed, drawn and colored, with a slap dash pace, whiplike motion and artful style that puts many of the current big studio animation efforts to shame.
The film utilizes computer animation, either combined with hand-drawn animation or in the service of CGI models that have been given a hand-drawn look, that overall is remarkably successful and just a visual treat.
There is a blog, partly in French, partly in English, that features preliminary art, model studies, character designs, backgrounds and other aspects of the development of the film.
The official website also has a link to an earlier trailer the group did for a never fully realized short, Meet Buck, that shows them developing the skills exhibited in Salesman Pete. There is also a short trailer for Salesman Pete on Vimeo.
I don’t know what this group is up to next, but I’m looking forward to seeing their next project, whatever it may be.
[Via Neatorama]