SSF: “Buy Buy Baby”

I love the “old-timey” feel in this week’s short, Buy Buy Baby, which starts in the first few frames of the title and carries through all the way to the end credits. Even the length reminds me of those thrilling days (or Saturday mornings) of yesteryear. I was practically raised on this sort of thing. Great stuff.

It’s the roaring twenties and things are looking great for Frederick Frinklesworth II and the rest of the New York Stock Exchange, but when his daughter Betty is left in his care for the day can Fredrick and Wall Street survive the mayhem that ensues?

OK, so it’s not narratively complex, exactly. And it grows a bit gallows-humor-y towards the end. But it made me smile, because babies.

The visual imagination on display is fantastic — I think the line-drawn typewriter sequence is my favorite bit — and I’m thrilled to learn that its creator, one Gervais Merryweather, is currently working on a “new animated short film likely to be released later in 2014; the director claims that this new project is one that is ‘going to get lovers of 80′s pop culture a little bit nostalgic!’”

I’m in. Very in.

Also, don’t forget to look up Daniel Permutt, the short’s concept artist. His contribution’s cannot — or should not — be overlooked. (And HT to Short Of The Week and Cartoon Brew, who brought the short to my attention almost simultaneously last week.)

Attribution(s): All artwork, publicity images, and stills are the property of their respective creators and/or distributors.