Jelly
Director: Robin Budd
Canada, 2023, 13 min
Shooting Format:UHD DCP 1.78:1 Dolby 7.1
Festival Year:2024
Category:Animation
Genre:Drama
Crew:Writers: Robin Budd, Dale Schott. Producers: Laurie Handforth, Marilyn McCauley. Composer: Daniel Lanois
Email:jelly.short@nelvana.com
Web:nelvana.com
Synopsis
An inspirational modern fairy tale. Should Molly, a fiercely talented artist, pursue her creative passion or work a soul-sucking factory job? She can't decide until she meets a mysterious liquid spirit who takes her on an exhilarating journey of self-discovery and helps make the choice easy.
Trailer
About the director
Robin Budd is an animation designer/director with extensive experience and devotion to the art of storytelling. Founded in classical hand-drawn animation and skillfully weaving those principles of fluidity, weight and believability within the digital world have always been his specialty. Various shiny awards adorn his shelves such as an Emmy® and 3 Canadian Screen Awards. A bowling trophy still eludes him. He and his inspiring wife devote their free time to skiing, canoeing and laughing as much as possible.
Filmmaker's note
After a lifetime in the animation world, I've found the best creative moments are when I'm being authen-tic, and when I'm feeling courageous.
The authentic self is of course about honesty; Expressing what you really think, not what you think someone else wants to hear. The courageous part is what's required to be authentic because honest ex-pression can be contrasting and sometimes unpopular!
With the story Jelly, our protagonist Molly is someone who sees beauty where others don't. She is al-ways looking to create something wonderful and unique, even though her reality is grim, dark and repeti-tive. Few around her share this passion, and it's making her world an oppressive, dull existence. She's losing her mojo, and consequently her inner creativity is disappearing. But then, as if an invisible force of nature shouts STOP!… an oozing, ugly blob named Jelly appears, follows her home, sees Mollys' own original, expressive work and is dazzled by it. The creature inspires Molly to follow her passion, but she soon discovers that throwing out her mind-numbing pattern of the past definitely won't be easy.
I like to think of this creature as our hero's inner self. That voice that we all-too-often suppress. That voice that says what we really want to say, not necessarily what others want to hear.
Authentic and courageous.
It embraces an old but powerful expression; Fortune favours the brave!
Robin Budd
May 2023