Alberto Mielgo is no stranger to animation. Having worked on such notable properties as Tron: Uprising and Love, Death, & Robots, the writer/director has developed an eye for crafting deeply human-seeming animations. His art is practically photo-real. It is this depth of craft he brings to the delightful short The Windshield Wiper.
A man in a cafe asks a direct question, “What is love?” Over the course of the glorious, pastel-painted 14 minutes of this film, various vignettes flit across the screen, providing context and clues which will eventually lead him to a lovely answer. I found the film endlessly charming. Even when it walks us through the heartbreak and despair that can come from love, it is just so beautifully animated.
“A man in a cafe asks a direct question, ‘What is love?‘”
The film is based on a series of paintings Mielgo made. You can see the very depth of scope the animator has in each of the still frames of this exquisite piece of computer graphic animation. In fact, there were several moments throughout where I was convinced the entire project had been rotoscoped; that is how well-rendered these CGI humans are.
Seek out The Windshield Wiper. Not only is it brief, but it is also deeply profound and expressive. It is quite a wondrous experience to be had with animation.
"…deeply profound and expressive."
