Two Balloons: A love story into the sky

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Two Balloons is a short stop-motion movie, mixing tenderness, love and travel. Directed and written by Mark C. Smith, the movie shares the story of two Lemurs, navigating each other their airships and trying to reach themselves in the sky. Despite the distance and the difficulties encountered in the journey, the two adventurer-animals want to pursue their own love dreams inside a magical decoration.

Released on the 30th of October last year, this short movie continues its international Festival tour with great success in the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival (France),  the Tribeca Film Festival (NY) and the Oxford Film Festival. The project, first thought as a live action short, was gradually switched as an animated one, using stop-motion. After four years of work including 16 months of storyboard, Two Balloons came to life with a little difficulty, as the team never used the stop-motion process before. They benefited from the experience of a confirmed stop-motion animator like Teresa Drilling, to help them making the project alive. Thanks to its creators, the movie shares its enchanting atmosphere between clouds and travel.

First, the silent film shows a lot of mystery as we don’t know the background of both the characters but quickly, both lemurs become endearing. The stop-motion process definitely matches the story, and makes the movie look like a small poetry into the sky. For nearly 10 minutes, let yourself be carried by the movie. Even if Two Balloons is non-verbal, the main love message appears clear thanks to the precision of each animated element. Finally, the amazing decors lets the spectator the impression of being part of a painting. The only regret: that this short movie isn’t longer!

You can watch the trailer below!