Sep 302005
 

Jasper Morello (voice: Joel Edgerton, Owen Lars in Episodes II & III of Star Wars and Gawain in King Arthur) lives in a future filled with steam-powered radios and iron airships.  A navigator who made a tragic mistake, he is given another chance onboard a hulking metal craft that is searching for a cure to the plague that ravages the land.  Leaving his wife behind, Morello sets off with imposing Captain Griswald (voice: Thomas Dysart), acclaimed scientist, Doctor Claude Belgon (voice: Helmut Bakaitis, The Architect in The Matrix Reload and The Matrix Revolutions), and a small crew into uncharted air.  Directed by: Anthony Lucas, Written by: Mark Shirrefs, Produced by: Julia Lucas.  26 min

For a short film, The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello is a very long title.  It is nearly impossible to fit nicely above a review, and tends to drop to a second line in a film festival program book.  But then this is a short film which is long on character, plot, theme, and twisted beauty.  Besides, it isn’t a needlessly drawn-out title.  I can’t think of a better one to announce this twenty-six minute epic.  It says, “Here is an old-style adventure yarn, though perhaps with an unexpected direction.  There will be travel to secret, faraway lands filled with terrible and wonderful things.”  And it says that our hero—whose names signifies accountancy, not mercenary warfare or bullwhip archaeology—may not be up to the challenge.

I don’t see a lot of good steampunk, so Jasper Morello is a real treat.  It may be the best example of this sub-genre committed to film, and certainly does more for its reputation than the big-budget League of Extraordinary Gentleman, the most famous recent entry.

(For anyone who doesn’t normally worry about science-fiction expressions, “steampunk” is a literary term, referring to what was originally an offshoot of Cyberpunk.  It loosely covers scientific romantic adventures set in a world that expands, but does not fundamentally alter Victorian technology, merged with dystopian horrors.  Think of it as what you’d get if you resurrected Jules Verne and H.P. Lovecraft, kept them ignorant of any changes in the world since their deaths, and forced them to collaborate on a futuristic novel.)

By the nature of steampunk, there is going to be a mixing of the traditional and modern.  Jasper Morello does this with a story that harkens back to the radio plays of the early 1940s, but adds a touch of 2000s horror film savagery (there are some pretty nasty beasts with some very bad habits).  The narration/dialog is so well constructed and expertly delivered that you could close your eyes and enjoy the tale, letting the words paint pictures in your mind—strange in a movie with such remarkable visuals.

Of course it is those visuals that make the entire work so extraordinary.  They are part shadow puppets, part object animation, and part CG.  The 2-D silhouette characters move about in a gothic 3-D rendered world that reeks of malevolence.  It is the perfect interpretation of the multiple genres that make up steampunk, combining the old with the new.  But forget all the meaning and the way the style matches the story; it is simply a pleasure to look at the imagery.  Director Anthony Lucas has created a hybrid that is nothing like its parents.  You’ve never seen anything like The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello.

And it looks like we’re not through with the “Aeronaut of the 3rd Royal Cartographers” as Lucas has plans for three voyages.  Apparently he’s going to pull a Star Wars and re-title the first film, using its current name as a wraparound for the trilogy.  The three will be:

  • The First Voyage – Jasper Morello and the Lost Airship
  • The Second Voyage – Jasper Morello and the Secret of Alto Meas
  • The Third Voyage – Jasper Morello and the Ebenezer of Gothia.

If the sequels are anywhere near as successful as the first has been (winning numerous awards, including at the Dragon*Con Independent Short Film Festival which I not-so-coincidently run, and earning BAFTA and Academy Award nominations), then we may be seeing a feature.  I sympathize with the desire to make a longer version since you can’t pay the bills with the profits from a short film.  But I’m happy with the shorter installments; the first “voyage” is thoroughly enjoyable, innovative, thought-provoking, and fast-paced.  Whatever the length, as long as Lucas, producer Julia Lucas, and screenwriter Mark Shirrefs create them, I’ll be happy to join Jasper for the ride.