Trunk’s Rok Predin creates homage to Sunday morning cartoons
Skwigly
Trunk’s director Rok Predin has created a brilliant and delightful new short, ‘Pok’, to honour those halcyon days of watching Sunday morning cartoons whilst still in your pyjamas! Discussing the short Rok notes “This is a homage to the types of cartoons we used to watch growing up in the 80s. Everything in this piece from character and layout design, to the music and sound effects was aimed to evoke that distinct feeling of watching your favorite animated shows whilst eating your breakfast.”
Growing up in Slovenia Rok had access to a plethora of European cartoons such as Bojan the Bear, Lolek and Bolek, Mole, Sport Billy and Professor Balthazar. Some of these cartoons often had odd durations and were normally silent or with minimal vocalization, such as with professor Balthazar where the action was communicated by the music alone. ‘Pok’ really captures the spirit and passion those cartoons had, yet plays to a contemporary audience. Indeed Rok has a perfect critic in his young daughter, who inspired him to create ‘Pok’ after he saw how she, like him, loved watching the old cartoons.
Beautifully graded and composited to look like a well watched VHS tape, the short certainly invokes a 1980s vibe. Barnaby Templer at Fonic has created the perfect sound design to provide Sebastian Duh’s score with the right ambiance. The combination of a wonderful repetitive score and that tinny electronic sound evoke those classic video games, which again helps to ground you in a bygone era. The animation was all created using After Effects and has a distinctly cut-out feel that looks hand made. The limitations created by this style of animation ensured the shorts were inventive and full of imaginative leaps to complete the story arcs. Silent and physical the shorts are bursting with that classic brand of humour and stand up to multiple viewing. Rok notes “We’re hoping to develop it further and create more episodes, releasing it online as a web series. Any sponsors are welcome!“
Something that producer Richard Barnett is also keen to do. “The shorts have so much scope, ‘Pok’ is such a great character and has endless potential for those classic simple set ups and fun pay offs, it would be great to find some support for them.”