MR. REAPER’S REALLY BAD MORNING

2004 | 17 MIN

Animation Technique: 2D

It's a film about the uneasy co-existence between life and Mr. Death.

Mr. Reaper's Really Bad Morning  is an experimental cartoon.  Most short animated films seek to present
a single idea, to pare it down to it's essence.  This is not one of those films.  Conventions of the animated
cartoon are re-imagined and combined with those of experimental and silent film to present what is the
antithesis of animation, a cartoon essay true to the spirit of the mythological personification of Death.

In the 21st century Mr. George Reaper has become your average 9 to 5 working stiff, eking out an ineffectual existence, reduced to a pale shade of his former glorious self.  The film has him wake up, get ready for work, wait for a bus and suffer humiliation at the hands of Norman the Daisy.

The film is in four parts with a prologue and is structured using Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

"Mr. Reaper's Really Bad Morning is a wonderful tour de force of style and concept. I loved it!"

Bill Plympton
Academy Award nominated animator

"Very rarely could one watch the Grim Reaper doing his work and be so amused by it. As shown in this short film, this terrific animation stands between cartoon and experimental film language, and can almost be called a classic piece from the Canadian animation school."

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Aug 15, 2005 newspaper article about the Weiterstadt Open Air Film Festivaltranslated from the German

AWARDS

2005

Bronze Award
Kalamazoo Animation Festival International

Best Animation and People's Choice Award
Spectrum International Short Film Festival

Selection
Best of the Festival Open Air Film Festival Weiterstadt

Selection
Best of the Festival Interfilm International Short Film Festival

Official Competition
Anima Mundi International Animation Festival - Rio deJaneiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil
Interfilm International Short Film Festival - Berlin, Germany
Open Air Film Festival - Weiterstadt, Germany
Kalamazoo Animation Festival International - Kalamazoo, Michigan
Dawson City International Short Film Festival - Dawson City, Yukon
Ann Arbor Film Festival - Ann Arbor, Michigan
Spectrum International Short Film Festival - Red Deer, Alberta
International Festival of Animated Films Anifest Trebon - Prague, Czech Republic

2006

Official Competition
Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival - Victoria, B.C.

SCREENINGS

2008

Ottawa International Animation Festival, Canadian Animation: Looking for a Place to Happen
Alberta Arts Day, Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium

2007

Uppsala International Short Film Festival - Sweden
Otafest - Calgary, Alberta
More Remarkable Festival Winners - Animpact, Seoul, Korea
Canadian Animation Festival - Canadian Trade Office, Taipei, Taiwan
Animondo - Lowave Screening, Pompidou Centre - Paris, France

2006

Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival - Serbia and Montenegro
Canadian Animation, curated screening - Cineworks, Vancouver, B.C.
Calgary International Film Festival - Calgary, Alberta

2005

Black Nights Film Festival - Estonia
Canadian Film Days at the Canadian Embassy -  Latvia
Canadian Cinema Weekend at Fri-Son fait son cinéma - Fribourg, Switzerland
Best of Canadian Animation at Anifest 3 - Budapest, Hungary
Schwenninger Shortfilmfestival - Germany
Casa da Animação - Porto, Portugal
Cinema Slam, Michigan Theater - Ann Arbor, Michigan
Annecy International Animation Festival, programme of Canadian animation - France
Classical/Digital, curated screening, Centre for Art Tapes - Halifax, Nova Scotia
Calgary Asian Film Festival - Calgary, Alberta
BYTE Youth Film Week - Whitehorse, Yukon
Cinematheque Quebecoise - Montreal, Quebec
Prairie Tales 7 Alberta Film and Video Tour
Alberta Scene albertaine Showcase of Alberta Arts - Ottawa, Ontario

2004

Canadian Film Showcase, Ottawa International Animation Festival - Ottawa, Ontario
Calgary International Film Festival - Calgary, Alberta

Library Collections

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