Promoting Good Animation: A Prank Time
A video I often revisit is “A Prank Time”, an independent animation made by a single animator, Jaime Rodriquez. This short animation follows a fat kid as he attempts to play a prank of his father, with “wacky results”. The kid starts off by observing his father, and then gathering objects he needs; a can of shaving cream and a feather. He then jumps down some stairs in order to avoid making noise, temporarily transforming into a liquid mass before reassuming his natural form as he hits the floor. The fat kid proceeds to sneak up to and then tickle his father’s face. After the father sniffs a bit but fails to sneeze, the fat kid inserts the can of shaving cream into the unfortunate man’s face. The father becomes extremely angry and proceeds to rage around in an unconventional manner, after which he dashes for and jumps out a window and flies away into the ether. The fat kid is then grounded.
The quality and effort that was put in is immediately apparent- the animation is very detailed, with each frame being drawn by hand. The animator’s style is quite distinct-looking at a single frame, it may seem simple. The detail comes from the animation itself. Because of how fluid and detailed it is, Jamie was able to sneak in several little hidden images among the frames. For instance, as the fat kid lands, for a few frames he takes on the shape of a horse (1:19).

The animation is very surreal and creative. The artist really goes all out with what they can do in the medium. I especially liked when the angry father floated about in this weird warping way, seemingly transcending space itself (3:14).

Sadly the sound isn’t quite the best it could be. The cat’s purr for instance comes across as being a bit too loud. However, most sound effects are still well placed and work for me. Overall they don’t distract from the experience and the animation is a pleasure to witness.
