'The Hobbit' Filmmakers Raise Funds for Stop-Motion Animated Short

The Hobbit visual effect artist Horst Sarubin has teamed up with work colleague, Carlos Laloli, to raise funds for their stop-motion project entitled Birds!.

The fifteen minute short will be “a love story, a ballet, a musical and a fashion show”. The story will focus on an indigenous New Zealand weka bird named George who tries to impress a female by creating colorful crazy inventions. Doctor Who‘s Sylvester McCoy, who played Radagast the Brown in The Hobbit trilogy, has joined the project to narrate the film. Visual effects Oscar winner Alex Funke will produce and handle cinematography, and New Zealand recording artist Kimbra, best known for her contribution to the 2011 hit “Somebody That I Used to Know”, will be creating voices for the birds.

The project is currently raising funds on Kickstarter to achieve their $90,000 budget.