Ta Da

Cool story with lots of personality. I like that your films tend to have something at their heart driving them. It’s a very simple set up, but it takes you on a journey even in a limited setting, and ends with great satisfaction.

What an absolute honor to watch <3 About as close to perfect as you can get from this competition.
Loved the character design, and it almost looked like claymation. The comedic elements were perfect, and added to the charm. I really expected just 5 minutes of funny accents, and I was NOT prepared for the places this film goes.
The buildup and fantastical elements were done so perfectly and paced so fuckin well. I was HOOKED from beginning to end, and I was left stunned. But its also remarkably simple in terms of scope. A great example of 'Less is More' and I mean that in the best possible way. I really can not think of a single negative. Clearly Andrew Todd did not come to fuck around. This is his competition to lose.

Great story and voice acting here, and detailed animation to sell it. There was a whole world and backstory that felt fully fleshed out - awesome to do all that in 48 hours!

Fantastic 3D animation in a style reminiscent of Shanks and Bigfoot, here we got a very Scottish take on a drive-thru where the personal ghosts of the past get in the way of a tasty trout and gravy meal at MacDougalls.

World building so good I've literally jumped on a search engine just now to check out 'Bonnie Boxes' probably much to Andrew's delight, I particularly liked the nonchalant attitude of the hungry driver even when faced with the possessed menus coming alive.

The rage and groundstanding of the fierce Scot who doesn't take any shit even from a ghost was also a highlight, though I think the comedic aspects of the script were probably its greatest strength, with the server having me laugh out loud at one of her responses.

Excellent voice acting, colour play that popped like gum against the night setting and seriously strong sound design. Technically very on point.

For mine the main nitpicks was that maybe the fightback/standing up for himself came a bit too quickly and rushed through? I only say that because the back and forth engagement over The Bonnie Box was so good, though this was mitigated by an enjoyable real sendoff for the film after that that great the film an excellent full circle arc.

Story: 4/5
Technical: 4.5/5
Elements: 4/5
Overall: 4/5

I think Buddy is probably right - this is Andrew's competition to lose with his animated "Ta Da". Thanks to the benefits of screen-recording I've been able to watch this several times and have sat on this review for a while. The short story is; it's great.

I really, really like the quiet moments in this film, the world-building that goes on and the whole accusation of "like father, like son" that then plays out, how it plays out. It's also genuinely menacing and downright brutally nasty in parts - that Da is a piece of work. And, his words are naturally the scariest part of all.

Andrew's voice-acting is excellent but still recognisably "Andrew" which adds to the fun. Jingles, music, clever jokes and cool animation - it's all here.

Look, Andrew knows better than almost anyone how to tell an effective story, that leaves a lasting impression on you. "Ta Da" is another impressive solo short from him that he seems to produce rather effortlessly. I'm sure it's not as simple as that - it just feels that way.

My favourite to take out CHCH and also head off to the Grand Final.

This had me absolutely howling with laughter. It is such a gem of a 48hours. The voice acting and writing is excellent. Pairing that with how Andrew clearly understands how to get the most out of simple models to make them sing while understanding the time crunch constraints of the competition. The 3D camera work was superb too. I would hope to see this do well in the Grand Finals. Very fine work from a highly talented veteran. 5/5

Another stunning effort from the excellent (and I imagine exhausted) veteran himself.

I think what really makes my heart soar when watching Andrew's films is he takes the time to stretch his creative muscles into just really unique and bizarre thematic territory, whether it be a Russian cat, an empathetic alien, or a possessed Irish fast food sign - he embraces the creative freedom that going down the animation path gives you, and that's always great to watch.

Loved hearing all of the little anecdotes every time you went down to swipe up an award, was the script really inspired by your father!?! trauma breeds art I suppose :')

Absolutely devastated that you only got runner up, but thats only because its such a good film!! I cant wait to see what you make next year ❤️

Hilarious, captivating and deeply personal in a way you rarely get in 48Hours, TA DA is, in my humble opinion, the best film in 48Hours this year. Apologies to all whom this offends.

Story structure, we're looking at the reigning champ in the competition I think, and very deserving of Best Script. There are so many story beats BLOB ticks off that seem to go overlooked by other stories from other teams. Right away we're introduced to a character, shown their flaw, and therefore we have the rest of the film to enjoy the character development. It's not revealed halfway through that our protagonist is lying to his partner, it's not the introduction of Da that lets us know that "becoming my father" is the protagonist's biggest fear, it's told to us up front and the rest of the story is in service of helping him reach closure.

Similar to UTKA, 2018's Christchurch winner made by A SMALL BLOB OF ICE CREAM + 1 extra person, I think adding a foreign accent and flair to the film (Russian in the case of UTKA, Scottish in the case of TA DA) makes it a much more textured and interesting over all package. Truly a short cut to making your 48Hour film stand out which I'm surprised has not been highjacked by more teams.

The vocal performance from Andrew Todd is incredible as well, voicing multiple Scottish characters, each with a distinct different voice. The dialogue is delightfully jargon-y as well, but does a great job of contextualising anything too niche - for example I'd never heard the term "Bairn" before but picked up it meant "child" pretty quickly. It's a really intelligent marriage of script and performance.

I love so much about this film that it's hard to not just list individual moments that orbit my mind daily - it was such a joy to rewatch every time and I especially enjoyed valuing out it's award nominations. I think my favourite award this film one was "Best Use of Whisper", one of the rare element award wins that takes it out not because it subverts the element, or takes it literally or does anything tricksy, it's just that "You're just like yer fuckin' Da" is such a baller line/delivery/climax, and the resulting defeat is so cathartic. I think excitement is under-utilised in this competition. More films should be exciting.

The Bonnie Box song is also awesome and despite its simplicity, was very nearly my vote for Best Song, but maybe it's more that I love how accurate it is to fast food campaigns than it being the best jingle of the year.

If I were pressed to give this film any critiques, I'd say that the animation doesn't exactly offer a new dimension to the story beyond a lot of these elements being way easier to control in animated form (meaning, it would have been mostly the same live action), and also, I wonder if Da being defeated needed to have an emotional equivalent instead of just the physical running over of the sign. It felt like the protagonist is given an emotional conflict to overcome, and he gets there by killing his ghost dad - perhaps there was a way to merge this physical action with an emotional one? Small nitpicks anyway.

Everything here is firing on all cylinders, basically every element is enjoyable, from the satisfying script to the impeccable production design to the engaging performances to the sound design to the music to the cinematography to the tiniest smallest minutia. It probably would have won Christchurch if animation wasn't so divisive, and it's my perhaps-biased pick for Grand Final champ. I guess we'll find out.

Challenge for next year: It's hard to say - I guess if you're going solo again, you don't need my challenge. But maybe, maybe my challenge is to join a team again, and see what is born out of collaborative effort. Will it be better or worse?