This is the tragic and emotional story of a young scientist, Professor of Astronomy Star l’Etoile, who did not have time to make her most significant discovery in life due to her untimely death. This story is symbolic because the author of this comic, Navy Bird, died without ever seeing her main book, “Arlekino & Pirrot,” published. She had been working on it for the last two years. She was killed at the age of 24.
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Review by Julie C. Sheppard:
A gripping sci-fi animation short, The Planet That Doesn’t Exist, combines a character study with profound existential musings about mortality. The credits inform the viewer that the project is sponsored by the “Mom of Navy Bird”. We discover that Navy Bird is a comic character created by her daughter, a brilliant young woman. You sense the admiration the mother has for her, in this lovingly created project.
The animation depicts her as sensitive and, perhaps, a classic science-focused introvert. The voice over artist does a superb job providing the character with a delicate balance of both quiet confidence and at, at times, deep insecurity regarding the validity of her calculations and the potential discovery of a new planet. This central voice is suitably amplified as if coming from a rather nervous mission controller. A ghostly echoey voice of death is also chillingly effective.
In addition to the emotional richness of the main character, the CGI-generated celestial imagery is breathtakingly beautiful, as the actual solar system. Another stunning component is the soundtrack with tinkling strains, and intense rumblings of an outer space echo chamber. Scenes of the “undiscovered country” of a massive outer space are perfect for this luminous short, in order to consider the bigger questions of the mysteries of science, life, and life after death.
- Nadav Embon – Director
- Navy Bird Revital Bronshtein – Writer
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