The Flying Sailor is a short film selected for the 2023 Sundance Film Festival animated shorts block. A film by Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby, and a team of talented 3D and 2D animators, this little story took me by surprise — in a good way. The Flying Sailor is tragic, beautiful, and morbidly humorous.

A sunny morning in a harbor is interrupted by 2 cargo ships colliding. Soon after, an explosion rocks the dock, sending debris and bystanders flying and screaming. One bystander, a sailor, finds himself on a longer fall than expected, as he ends up being catapulted to far away places in his memories, and also, catapulted over a mile away, physically, from where the explosion occurred.

Labeled as “a true story”, The Flying Sailor is based on the Halifax Explosion event in the early 1900s. The explosion happens early on in the film, with much of the story being centered around studying the sailor and his experience. A lifetime is played out in the span of a moment for our character, much to my delight, as I was treated to a flurry of flashbacks from childhood to adulthood that imbued the character with what seemed like a real-life though he was only in 2D. The humdrum events that lead up to the moment we meet him in the film — the moment of the explosion.

The sound design and music — both done by Luigi Allemano — were something to behold in this film. The orchestral music, at times, felt reminiscent of a Looney Tunes cartoon but took on serious tones once the explosion occurred. The animation in the The Flying Sailor was wonderful — not a word was uttered but so much was told within its telling frames. The film seemed to be a mix of both 3D but mostly 2D animation, using the 3D elements for special effects.

The artists of The Flying Sailor made beauty out of the chaos of an explosion. I loved how they chose to end the film — nothing was necessarily wrapped up, but it revealed biting humor in the midst of a near-death experience. The film was brightly colored, which turned out to be a nice juxtaposition to the dark day in history upon which the story is based.

8 out of 10