Watch: Funny, Cute 4-Minute Animated Short Film ‘Zoon’ w/ Axolotls
by Alex Billington
June 6, 2024
Source: Vimeo
Look at all these cute lil’ buggers! Crawling around and being adorable. But wait, what happens next? This amusing 4-minute animated short film called Zoon is now online for everyone to watch. It first premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and has been screening at tons of other festivals for the past two years. Zoon is created and directed by German animation filmmaker Jonatan Schwenk, who really loves hybrid animation and always cooks up clever concepts in his funky stop-motion shorts. (He also did sound design for this short Rules of Play with his friend Merlin Flügel.) Residing in a swamp at the bottom of a nocturnal forest, a group of gleaming axolotls pursue lustful games. The creatures relish nuzzling one another & also nibbling their companions’ limbs. One review says this is about “the beauty and cruelty of nature.” Though I’d argue that what happens in the second half is more about the idiocy and careless of humanity, messing around with things they have no understanding of. As usual. Maybe you have another interpretation of this?
Thanks to Vimeo Staff Picks for the tip on this. Full intro from Vimeo: “In the dark swamps of a nocturnal forest, a group of gleaming axolotls is in heat, nuzzling and nibbling one another’s limbs. Soon a much larger, two-legged forest-dweller encounters the lustful group and reaches down to gobble one of the small shimmering creatures. His plump friends begin to partake as well and a feast begins. While dawn is slowly breaking, a cheerful game begins higher up in the branches.” Zoon is a short created & directed by German animation filmmaker Jonatan Schwenk based in Berlin – view more of his work on his Vimeo page or visit his official website or follow him on IG @jonatanschwenk. It’s also produced by Schwank. With music & sound design by David Kamp. Written by Merlin Flügel & Schwenk. Distributed by Miyu Distribution. This initially premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, and toured around the world to tons of other fests, winning the Audience Award at the 2022 Hiroshima Animation Season in Japan. For more info, visit Vimeo or Jonatan’s site. Watch a behind-the-scenes video here. To watch even more shorts, click here. Thoughts?