Hound
2016 · Australia
Directed by Georgia Kriss
Genres: animation, comedy, surrealism
Tones: darkly comic, surreal, whimsical
A surreal, darkly comic animated love letter to dogs that twists selective breeding to absurd extremes, unfolding as a series of loosely linked vignettes in which real breeds become grotesque, dreamlike creatures — including a centipede-bodied dachshund. Made as Georgia Kriss's third-year graduate film at RMIT University in Melbourne.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A centipede dachshund isn't just a joke—it's a full inversion of the saccharine dog-love genre, using selective breeding's actual horror to build something genuinely unsettling underneath the whimsy. Most people would've made this cute; Kriss made it *weird*, and that's why it works.
The vignette structure channels a lineage of surrealist animation that traces back through Švankmajer and into contemporary gallery practice, with each segment's formal restraint allowing the grotesquerie to land as craft rather than spectacle.
The decision to animate these mutations in flat, matter-of-fact style—treating a centipede dog with the same deadpan draftsmanship as a normal terrier—is what sells the satire; a more expressive approach would've undercut the entire premise.
Reviews
This delightfully bizarre love letter to the humble pooch twists the breeding and inbreeding of dogs to absurd levels... wonderfully illustrated and expertly realised, this student film is packed with a keen, humorous eye for design.
Australian illustrator/animator Georgia Kriss' 3rd year graduate film is so good!