"Bingo" is an award-winning Canadian 5-minute short film from almost 20 years ago and this is based on Greg Kotis' play and the director is Chris Landreth. He made this film before his Oscar win for "Ryan", but was also an Academy Award nominee for another work at this point. Many people find clowns scary and I cannot say I am a great fan either and this film completely focuses on how clowns are scary and not funny. We see a seemingly normal man, who sits in a circus and all kinds of circus creatures (including an Abby Sciuto look-alike) turn him in a weird brain-washing manner into some kind of character who loses his mind and becomes the clown they want him to becomes. I thought the animation is good and the story succeeds through its strangeness and awkwardness. Landreth was in his mid-30s when he made this little animated movie and it's a success. I recommend checking it out and I actually like it more than "Ryan".
4 Reviews
Surrealistic computer-generated short is an animated wonder.
Prozzy27 May 1999
"Bingo" is the latest entry in the arena of increasingly complex and lifelike computer-generated animations. Chris Landreth sought a subject for a short that would aid in the development of Maya, an animation software package by Alias/Wavefront. He found inspiration in the Chicago-based theater group "The Neo-Futurists" who for years have performed an ever-changing series of 30 plays in 60 minutes called "Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind." Greg Kotis's play "Disregard This Play," in which a man is psychologically brutalized into believing he is a clown named Bingo, became the basis for Landreth's animation.
Bingo expands on the original short skit (a filmed portion of which we see at the beginning) by allowing the innate surrealism of the psychological battering to take on realistic imagery. The bizarre nature of the admittedly thin plot will not appeal to everyone. Several people I know simply raised their eyebrows and looked blankly at me when I asked them how they liked it. But all were impressed by the sheer technical prowess of the animation. Facial gestures, human musculature, lighting and shadows, smoke and haze effects are all astoundingly realistic. And Bingo shows why computer animators strive to create incredibly realistic human characters; not to become replacements for human actors, but to give us believable animated characters that can transform into these strange and surrealistic visions.
Bingo expands on the original short skit (a filmed portion of which we see at the beginning) by allowing the innate surrealism of the psychological battering to take on realistic imagery. The bizarre nature of the admittedly thin plot will not appeal to everyone. Several people I know simply raised their eyebrows and looked blankly at me when I asked them how they liked it. But all were impressed by the sheer technical prowess of the animation. Facial gestures, human musculature, lighting and shadows, smoke and haze effects are all astoundingly realistic. And Bingo shows why computer animators strive to create incredibly realistic human characters; not to become replacements for human actors, but to give us believable animated characters that can transform into these strange and surrealistic visions.
Hypnotizing, and some more...
mauriciocg-1478610 August 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Based on a play, directed by Chris Landreth and animated with the earliest technology, this short film might confuse some viewers. And that's normal, since that's Landreth's personal mark: confusing and overwhelming. Everything might look like a freak show, created specifically to scare you, to brainwash you. But if you look a little bit more into it, you might catch the real message here.
Basically, our main character has been put in a room as a test subject, constantly harrased by the grotesque, unpredictable circus freaks, whose mission is to make believe our main character here that he is someone who clearly he isn't (Bingo the Clown). He stands firmly into the fact that he isn't Bingo, but as time goes by, he starts doubting about himself. In the end, he finally makes a breakthrough, and believes firmly that now he IS Bingo. But then the lights turn on, the test is over and he has proved to be yet another one of the bunch, easily manipulated by the constant pressure to make him believe that he is Bingo. This is clearly the way the society works like. Everyone wants you to be someone who you aren't. Everyone wants you to do what they want, and in the end, you stop being yourself.
Besides the message (which is free for everyone's own interpretation), the animation techniques and the characters' designs are mind-blowing, sometimes scary, funny, bizarre and awesome. The background is full with colors, stimulating and confusing sounds and hypnotic visions, constantly changing and messing around with your mind.
It's worth to watch, and understand.
Basically, our main character has been put in a room as a test subject, constantly harrased by the grotesque, unpredictable circus freaks, whose mission is to make believe our main character here that he is someone who clearly he isn't (Bingo the Clown). He stands firmly into the fact that he isn't Bingo, but as time goes by, he starts doubting about himself. In the end, he finally makes a breakthrough, and believes firmly that now he IS Bingo. But then the lights turn on, the test is over and he has proved to be yet another one of the bunch, easily manipulated by the constant pressure to make him believe that he is Bingo. This is clearly the way the society works like. Everyone wants you to be someone who you aren't. Everyone wants you to do what they want, and in the end, you stop being yourself.
Besides the message (which is free for everyone's own interpretation), the animation techniques and the characters' designs are mind-blowing, sometimes scary, funny, bizarre and awesome. The background is full with colors, stimulating and confusing sounds and hypnotic visions, constantly changing and messing around with your mind.
It's worth to watch, and understand.
Hi, Bingo
Rectangular_businessman28 December 2022
Warning: Spoilers
The absurdity of the dialogue from the original play it's enhanced through the surreal imagery, giving it a creepy vibe; even when the cgi might be seen "dated" by modern standards, its mixture of comedy and horror still feels freshly nightmarish.
In some ways, it also feels ahead of its time, predating many trends present in several strange online animations that also manage to invoke a simultaneously humorous and uneasy vibe. The same kind of vibe many Adult Swim animations want to achieve, with more and less success.
Truth to be told, I found the dialogue from the play a bit obnoxious (The reaction from the audience in the live-action intro almost feels more like a conditioned reflex rather than genuine amusement) but the way in which Landreth adapts it makes something fascinating to watch.
In some ways, it also feels ahead of its time, predating many trends present in several strange online animations that also manage to invoke a simultaneously humorous and uneasy vibe. The same kind of vibe many Adult Swim animations want to achieve, with more and less success.
Truth to be told, I found the dialogue from the play a bit obnoxious (The reaction from the audience in the live-action intro almost feels more like a conditioned reflex rather than genuine amusement) but the way in which Landreth adapts it makes something fascinating to watch.
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