402 #15 - Alleycats (2018)

Alleycats is an action animated short released in 2018 by Blow Studio. The short centres around a sword wielding cat who fights a gang of larger cats and kills their boss in revenge for killing his father, only to realise the boss had a son nearby and be in a similar position to the boss. There is no dialogue in this short, everything is told through visuals.

I love pretty much everything about this short. The character designs are very stylised and unique, the lead being the most so. His design combines aspects of cat physique with the style of ninjas and even his dual swords, all of which are blended together incredibly well.

The cinematography is fantastic as well, fully utilising the gorgeous background to create some remarkable shots. The opening shot is one of my absolute favourites and leads very well into the lovely animation.

The short also utilises a 2D animation style using only three main colours (with various shades) to show flashbacks to give context to the plot. Although the animation is much slower and simpler, it has a gorgeous look to it and is so radically different to the main short's animation it is clearly a different part of time.