For quite some time, if you wanted to watch the freshest and best animation, you didn’t turn on the TV: you went online. My Damn Channel continues this trend with its hilarious and absurd anthology series, The Animation Block.
A grab bag of everything from stop motion and CGI to traditional 2D animation, Animation Block is a series of shorts airing every Monday on MDC. Each episode of the Web show is comprised of one original animated short, usually running about one to five minutes. From the obscene to the funny, Animation Block heavily features new animators with styles so original one can only hope the industry is taking notice.
As for the writing quality of the episodes, every short is concise, clear, and has a very definite point of view. These aren’t muddled student films with ambiguous plot points and big artistic statements that vastly overreach their creator’s skill-level. Each short is self-contained and effective, whether it’s cutout paper figures telling the story of a boy and his scoliosis in 2005’s “Backbrace,” or the simple illustrated puns in “Escargo.” MDC has assembled an impressive amount of talent, and is savvy enough to diversify–if this week’s episode is a serious CG piece, next week is a silly hand-drawn short. Animation Block also shows sequels to some of their best-produced shorts, like the consistently funny “nockFORCE.”
To sum up? In today’s sea of poorly produced CGI movies and flash TV shows, Animation Block proves that it’s not the quality of the work that’s depreciated, it’s the mainstream animation industry’s ability to recognize new talent that’s lacking.
