Tom Teller’s Icarus is a short film about a mother-son astronaut partnership, along with their quirky robot Kevin, with great VFX. Via Short of the Week:
There may come a day when I get tired of human-robot banter, but until then, I will take great joy in films like Tom Teller’s Icarus, a suspenseful live action-VFX hybrid about two astronauts (mother and son) and their quirky robot Kevin.
The plot is a routine one—one of the characters gets into trouble, and the others set off to save them—but the short is no less enjoyable for it. The impressive VFX work and high grade production values of Icarus are worth your time, and are supremely impressive, especially considering that the director was in film school at the time of production.
When the film came our way however, we were not surprised at the film’s stellar fusion of forms. Teller is no stranger to Short of the Week, or the short film world at large; we featured his last short Hum, and before that, he made a film called Harley about a strange, adorable fish that was Staff Picked by Vimeo. What all of these films have in common is small, realistic-looking creatures brought to life with superb VFX. I like how each of his animated characters fits into the world in a real way, and in Icarus, Teller challenges himself with a bigger budget, better actors, and a longer runtime.