12 Jahre (2010) Online

This one is a very short but effective animation.

Even if this plot is actually something very simple (It is basically a break-up story with humanized dogs as the main characters)the result is still pretty interesting.

The animation is merely decent, but it's the quality of the dialogue from this little story that made it work so well for me, going directly to the point without any kind of unnecessary filler material or distraction, being able to tell an unusual break-up story in only four minutes.

The ending is a dark example of black humor, but at the same time it's something incredibly satisfying.

Worth a look.

While the graphics on this film are far from state of the art (they look a lot like Nintendogs from the DS gaming system), the film proves that you don't need the very best technology to make a good CGI film.

The version of "12 Jahre" that I saw was dubbed into English--I assume since the original title is German and it was made there that there is a German language version as well. It begins with two dogs in a restaurant talking. You notice that the animals look almost like a cross between people and dogs--they talk like people, sit and drink wine like people...but they are dogs. Apparently the two dogs have been in a long-term relationship and now the small male dog is dumping the other dog--and going on to some young cute bitch. And, what follows is a nice but disgusting resolution.

It's weird, kind of cute and disgusting--and well worth seeing. I sure would wonder what other sorts of projects that will come out of these clever folks.

Here we have a German animated short film from 5 years ago. Two dogs, a big female and a small male, are sitting at the table and the male decides to end his relationship with the female. He comes off as pretty arrogant while doing so and in the end we are reminded that they are just animals. This fact is also what I did not really like about these 4 minutes. I actually prefer Nocke's previous film about Gerold where all the characters act and talk completely like they were humans. The voice actress is the same in both films by the way. He may have gotten a bit worse since 2006. Still, Nocke is very prolific in German film to this day, but almost exclusively as a writer for television. About this film here, it's not particularly memorable and I cannot recommend it despite the awards attention it got.