Moonbot Studios, the film production company which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 2012 with The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is back with their latest short, and impressive collaboration. This time Moonbot has teamed up with Fiona Apple and Chipotle to bring you The Scarecrow. Now, before you start moaning and groaning about what this means, take a look at the short and keep an open mind. Believe me, there is no real product placement within a single frame of the short and it is quite an impressive end product.
The short focuses on this amazing idea that scarecrows have been put out of their jobs, and now work for crowbots, which run the giant food factories that feed the masses. However, the crowbots abuse the animals that are used for food, not only by treating them inhumanely, but also by injecting them with all sorts of hormones. This continues until our hero, the scarecrow decides to make farm fresh healthy food and begins changing the way people in this town eat.
Though the film could be perceived as a bit heavy handed, it does a wonderful job of illustrating a story which needs to be told. Moonbot has taken their role as a responsible production company seriously, much like Pixar, and that is refreshing and admirable at a time where most production companies are simply focusing on making more money by producing high-action geared re-boots or tame sequels.
In this short, we have a beautiful story, with beautiful attention to detail in their animation, and a wonderfully eerie song cover by Fiona Apple which ties it all nicely together. As for Chipotle’s part in this, they have backed the short, also contributing to a free game app themed after the film and created by Moonbot, which is available on Apple iTunes.
One thing is for sure, this is a studio to keep an eye out for, as they have some great things coming our way. After all, not only did they give us The Fantastic Flying Books… but William Joyce co-founder of the company also wrote the books which inspired some of our other favorites like DreamWorks’ Rise of the Guardians, and Disney’s Meet the Robinsons.
If you loved the short, here is a look at the behind the scenes:
(Via Adweek)
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