The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello

Yesterday I cheated a bit by including a miniseries on my list of great sci-fi TV shows.  Today I'm cheating a bit by including a short film on my list of great sci-fi movies.

I'm okay with this exception for two reasons:  1)  a list of great sci-fi short movies would not only be incredibly hard to curate for the average individual, but also very brief  2)  this movie is bloody incredible.

I only became aware of The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello after it was nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the 2006 Academy Awards.  I'm retroactively appalled that it lost, particularly given the absolute braindead winner, The Moon and the Son:  An Imagined Conversation (yes, I've watched in its entirety).  My retroactive watching of the nominees only reinforces my opinion that the voting system of the Academy Awards is completely broken.

Sorry.  I've been sidetracked by my intense hatred of Hollywood incest.  Back to the movie.




The director of Jasper Morello is Anthony Lucas, an Australian filmmaker who, at the time, was no stranger to quirky animation techniques.  He'd twice before utilized claymation in his shorts, and with Morello it's clear he wanted to make something altogether different and outside the mainstream.

He succeeded beautifully.

Jasper Morello is shot entirely using silhoutted animation shapes, creating a haunting, vivid journey into imagination.  People in this world are picked out by their profiles, with special attention paid to details in hairstyle, dress, body shape and mannerisms.  Morello, for instance, delicately handles everything with slight movements, while the old veteran, Captain Griswald, stomps around authoritatively.  It's remarkably effective for defining character in a short span of time.  Lucas knows that just as much can be said with a tiny gesture as with a thousand words.



What makes this film so engaging is that it manages to build a world, a convincing set of characters, and a believable plotline in the span of just over TWENTY-SIX MINUTES.  When the film begins, we are given the words:  "The City of Gothia".  From there, the plot is revealed through some very well-paced events and a voice-over narration from Morello that is informative without being intrusive.  Hat's off to Joel Edgerton, who voices Morello, for keeping the emotional stakes high throughout.  Essentially, the story of Jasper Morello is one of personal redemption.  Morello is an airship navigator in the city of Gothia, a Steampunk / Victorian style society currently being ravaged by a fierce disease.  He is currently living in personal and professional disgrace, having miscalculated a turn on his last voyage that resulted in the death of a fellow crewman.  When Morello is given another chance at work by the Port Authority, things look up, but the presence of an enigmatic passenger onboard the vessel he is assigned to complicates matters.

I'm no doubt biased to this movie for being a remarkable send-up of Steampunk culture, but I think that non-fans of Steampunk will also enjoy it, even if only to just LOOK at it.  There's not a shot wasted here.  The sheer beauty of this film will have you wanting to frame your monitor and hang it on the wall.  It is, put simply, a work of art.



Apparently, this short film was subtitled "The First Voyage:  Jasper Morello & the Lost Airship" and was intended to be the first of four movies.  What transpired exactly to prevent the development of those films is murky.  My scouring of the internet has only turned up a commenter on a blog claiming to be Lucas, who said that the Australian network SBS passed on the scripts.  However, this same commenter also insists that he is pursuing a feature film in the same universe, so who's to say?  Take all of this with a grain of salt, as with any internet rumour.

What I do know for certain is this movie is unfortunately difficult to obtain in North America.  As such, I'm going to do something that I would never normally do:  I'm going to put a link to youtube here.  I know people might cry foul and insist copyright infringement, etc. but believe me when I say this is literally the only way this movie can be seen outside of the Oceanic region.  So please, don't go trying to yank this down, because everyone deserves to be able to see the stunning wonder of The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello.

All aboard...