Pandemonio
2015 · 3m · Italy
Directed by Valerio Spinelli
Genres: animation, experimental, surrealism
Tones: surreal, theatrical, whimsical
A kaleidoscopic procession of monsters, animals and strange creatures is conjured to the primitive, frenzied pace of Zu's music, with every figure built and animated entirely from overlapping felt circles that are moved, resized and painted without ever losing their perfect shape.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Most animators would crumble under the constraint of those rigid circles, so Spinelli does the opposite—he makes the limitation *the premise*, and suddenly you've got this feral, almost illegal-looking creature parade that shouldn't work but absolutely does.
The felt-circle grammar sits in conversation with mid-century geometric abstraction and stop-motion tradition, but Spinelli's refusal to let the medium hide behind illusion—those visible, imperfect manipulations—positions this as a genuinely contemporary intervention in animated form.
The single decision to never deform the circles forces every animator's instinct backward, which means every micro-movement reads as deliberate and weighted; that constraint is what makes three minutes of pure visual rhythm feel like watching something alive.
Festivals
- Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival 2015, Best Short Animation