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When the kids and I first watched The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello in 2006, I had never heard of steampunk. But when as soon as I heard the term, I knew that this is what it meant.
Jasper Morello is an animated short with the look of a 19th-century daguerreotype. The tone is sepia and black; the figures, buildings, and machinery are only seen as shadowy silhouettes. The artwork alone is fascinating; Wikipedia calls it “anymation” because it combines a variety of 2D and 3D materials and techniques. At times it looks like you’re seeing an actual model, and other times it seems to be simple cutouts. The effect is amazing.
Even though we weren’t quite sure where this macabre story was taking us, we were immediately drawn in and ready to go along for the ride. Here’s how it’s described on JasperMorello.com:
We discovered Jasper and his melancholy world on a DVD collection of 2005 Academy Award Nominated Short Films; that year’s winner was the powerful autobiographical film The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation by John Canemaker, who taught me how to do hand-drawn animation and gave me my first film credit. So it’s thanks to John and sheer happy coincidence that we discovered Jasper Morello and the world of steampunk.
All these years later, we still remember this short film vividly. Sadly, to us it will also remain mysterious. Although there are apparently more episodes to Jasper’s story, which was made by Australian director Anthony Lucas, the DVDs are only available Down Under. But you can watch the original 26-minute short on YouTube.
