This animated short takes us in to a corporate boardroom where characters representing different body parts are seated around a conference table, including two eye characters, a couple hands and feet. Walking to the front of the room to make a presentation is the boss, a talking foot who points to a chart showing a downward arc representing steadily declining productivity.
The foot informs those gathered that some of them will lose their jobs.
We see an eye character with its belongings packed in a box as it bids farewell. A tongue waves goodbye as it heads for the door.
Later we see two hands picketing, carrying placards with messages urging that their jobs be saved.
A voiceover then provides sobering context to this termination of body parts, informing us that multiple sclerosis “attacks the nervous system, causing body parts to shut down without warning.”
The narrator notes that the disease is most likely to strike people in their 20s and 30s, but we can fight back by contributing to the U.K. MS Society.
Darren Robbie, a.k.a. Chopsy, of Aardman Animations in the U.K.–a lead animator on the feature film Chicken Run–directed this 35-second PSA which has gone viral and hopes to raise awareness of, and cash to combat, a much misunderstood and potentially devastating disease. The client-direct PSA–with Chopsy and Terry Brain serving as animators–was launched during MS Week (5/23-29).
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More