Jungle Jail-360P

film

One of the many ESMA school projects available to all viewers on the Web, Jungle Jail is one of the weakest ones. The team of four students (no idea what Stepaschka - mentioned by IMDb - stands for, as it is not in the actual credits) didn't include a talented writer, unfortunately. The story is not told in an engaging manner. It fails to create any connection or emotion; no empathy; not even laughs when it tries to be funny. There might be a twist at the end, but if any it lacks clarity and again fails at humour. And actually, besides the bad delivery, the plot is not solid enough to begin with: a convict is being bullied by everyone, yet when the opportunity arises he becomes the worst of them. The art is average, which isn't so surprising considering that the makers are beginners in their profession, but it doesn't help that the visuals aren't even remotely creative. I'm left with the feeling that these kids might be more suited for a technical career in video games.

A simple moralistic story, a good animation, the dream of a little man front to the big one. And, unfortunatelly, nothing more. The music, like the humor , in few parts, sustain this project who remains just eccentric. Because it is only a game with cliches and expression of the interest for "cool" animation, ignoring the story who is only pretext. The confuse end is the good proof.

"Jungle Jail" is an 8-minute cartoon written by, directed by and starring Stepaschka, whatever that means. He has not worked on another film apart from this one. Anyway, here we have a small, bald, middle-aged man who goes to jail for whatever reason. There he has trouble dealing with the other inmates, but a happy coincidence helps him in becoming not only accepted, but feared by the other inmates. He enjoys this state for sure and even has the previous badass prison inmate on a leash at some point. It's a story of "from zero to hero", but it's neither very credible nor dramatically relevant nor funny. So yeah, all in all a fairly disappointing short film and I can see why the man behind it has not pursued any further projects, at least not under this pseudonym. Not really much talent in here. Thumbs down.