Grand Odyssey

After spoiling the Earth, humanity leaves it behind to go colonize other star systems thanks to the discovery of a worm-hole. Hundreds of years later, one of those colony, who has forgotten all about deep space travel and the worm-hole, receives a strange radio transmission that guide them to one of the old spaceships of the exodus. After restoring the spaceship and unlocking the old memories of Earth, humans decide to look for the worm-hole and find their way back to Earth -- which has restored itself to a pristine state.

This Franco-Japanese animated short offers an interesting subject -- although dramatically unoriginal and way too complex to cover in nineteen minutes! The designs are superb, but the 3D animation is rather average. A little more work on the animation -- more time to develop the story and the characters -- and it might have been an excellent movie. The stiff storytelling and the long narration of the beginning (the director used to produce documentaries for museums!) really doesn't help either.

Screened on 2007/08/27 at 19:40 in the Quartier Latin 16 (Before Tana no Sumi ). There was about fifty people in the theatre.

Reviewed by Claude J. Pelletier

For more information:    MWFF entry   /    IMDB entry.