Math Quest
2021 · 2m
Directed by Anthony Paras
Genres: adventure, animation, fantasy
A young boy is attacked by the monsters of his math test — he must use smarts and bravery to vanquish them.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
It's basically a kid-fights-his-homework fever dream, which should be weird enough to land, but the execution plays it straight—monsters-as-math-anxiety is the most predictable metaphor available, and the film doesn't seem interested in subverting it.
A competent piece of children's animation with clear narrative structure and a tidy moral arc, though it lacks the formal invention or visual language that would distinguish it within the animated short tradition.
The surreal character design of the math monsters themselves—those skittering, geometric forms—suggests a real eye for translating abstract concepts into tactile animation, and that visual specificity is what carries the whole thing.