AWARD WINNING, REBOOTED
A Spectacularly Animated Hollywood Tale
Rebooted is a story about an aging stop motion skeleton, Phil, who is washed up in the era of visual effects and now struggles in Hollywood. In the age of digitally engineered effects, Phil, the skeleton, finds it hard to score a role in the competitive and overly packed world of monster actors who are losing out. Phil drinks his sorrows away after losing job after job. At auditions, Phil gives his best “ROAR!” but no agents want him. Phil is lost in nostalgia, dwelling on his starring role in the successful film 10,000 Sandals. In it, he played a skeleton in combat with a Roman soldier. However, all hell breaks loose once Phil finds out a reboot of 10,000 Sandals is in production, but no one calls him to play his old part. Instead, the director uses a visual effects costume on a human to create the illusion of a fighting skeleton in Phil’s scene. Phil loses it when he finds out.
Michael Shanks is the writer/director of this Australian short and an accomplished filmmaker in visual effects with credit in Wizard of Aus (2016). The producers are Chris Hocking and Nicholas Colla of LateNite Films, a production house with a host of live-action, stop motion and animated films. The stop motion quality in Rebooted is just phenomenal, with realistic movements from Phil’s character working in line with real humans to put an edge of humor and skill into the production of this film. There’s also an appearance from a stop motion T-Rex, a 2-D figure, a rubber monster, and a liquid metal character; this shows the range of Shanks’ directorial ideas add to the film’s message–all monsters are outdated in the age of Hollywood visual effects.
Phil is a symbol for actors and special effects that have lost a place in the ever-changing climate of films. Shanks is trying to say that Hollywood is not an easy place to age. Replacements, even new reboots, can “boot” actors out of their roles. In this film, Shanks asks, “what if special effects creatures were actors?” (beforeandafters.com). It’s a concept that comes together through skillful experimentation and charming characters. Phil is likable, even as his most destructive fantasies come alive later in the film. However, Rebooted makes you feel for these monsters as if they were real.
