2006 Films   •   2006 Film Festival

Prickle Britches

Prickly roses, entangling barbs, zigzagging webs, exotic spinsters, capricious pussies, counterfeit mothers, and babbling battologists conspire to seduce a young girl through a deliriously surreal journey. This digitally composited and painted animation is a loose adaptation of the sleeping beauty tale, inspired by The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales edited by Maria Tatar, Struwwelpeter by Dr. Heinrich Hoffman, and the story of Little Briar Rose or 'Dornroschen' by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. The dual nature of the rose is utilized to entice, yet repel, the main character, Gemma, as she longs to follow her wanton feline on a grand, uncontrollable foray. Along the way a magnolious rose arouses her desire with its intoxicating aroma, only to prick her and send her (and others around her) into a somnolent state. In this trance-induced state she is beckoned by the rose lady on her nocturnal romp and rises in abeyance. She is propelled to the sutorian's lair where her shadow yearns to touch the mesmerizing spinning wheel, followed by a prick once more to her pale hand. An entanglement within a series of webs compels her form to take on a new design and break free from the constraints, so that she can maintain her pursuit of her chimera of a cat. Finally, a counterfeit mother figure, a battologist and her puss endeavor to stimulate her from this vision quest. Imagery is a composite of 2D painted layers, 3D spatial environments, painted line drawn animation, and rotoscoping.

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