User Reviews

This is a very cleverly animated little film that was just posted on IMDb along with a bunch of other shorts for viewing in the United States. Whether or not this will occur for other countries is unknown at this time.

The film starts with two mosquitoes talking. One is full of angst (Oclero)--wondering if there's more to life than just sucking blood. Then, after he visits a local haunted house and accidentally bits a vampire and drinks its blood, his entire outlook changes and he's found his purpose.

While I absolutely loved the cool animation style and much of the plot, there is one glaring problem that perhaps some viewers won't recognize. Male mosquitoes (like Oclero) do NOT drink blood--it's a female mosquito trait! If the film were redone and Oclero were given a sex change, this could easily take care of this.

I dunno. Maybe it would appeal to some people. At least it's so short it doesn't steal much time from those it won't appeal to. But frankly I am left wondering if I saw the same 5 minute cartoon others saw...

The "animation" is grade Z, consisting almost exclusively of a series of extremely simplistically drawn little better than stick figure motionless VERY 2D creatures on equally simplistic flat background stills. The flat motionless things get moved slowly past each other now and then. The only actual animation? 1) flapping mouths on the two mosquitoes 2) slightly spreading blood spots on a neck 3) tiny "bumps" moving up the mosquitoes tubes (ie blood drops being pulled in) and 4) at the very end, a slight movement of the human vampire's face.

The plot would be reasonable if not for the problem mentioned by another reviewer...male mosquitoes (and immature females) do NOT suck blood --they live on flower nectar, like bees. The only reason adult female mosquitoes take in blood meals is to get a shot of protein to make eggs. Every blood meal results in a batch of mosquito eggs. And please, no "But it's a faaaaantaaaasyyyyyyy" as an excuse.

The ending is pretty predictable, going one of the two ways you'd instantly come up with without thinking about it much, given the plot. It could be seen as funny juxtaposed with the previous talk of purpose and meaning in life; sort of a microshot of a layperson's idea of philosophical heights laid next to the most extremely mundane. I just found it to be eye rolling. I've no idea where this cartoon came from; if it is an early effort all of the lacks in it are more understandable, and it's possible that with more experience output will get better on the part of those who made it. It could also have been deliberately drawn badly, but that's a practice I am not particularly fond of.

It would be nice if the cartoon were more accurately categorized. I am not sure why IMDb is listing 5 minute videos as "full length movies". They clearly are no such thing and perhaps the annoyance of low quality anime would be lessened if the site would correctly list them in a subcategory such as "short shorts" or "short cartoons" in which such lacks might be more expected. To qualify as belonging in a category with what are commonly called full length movies a piece needs to be no less than 80 minutes long if it is modern, or no less than 55 minutes long if it's from an earlier (non silent) era.

Bored and unhappy mosquito Oclero (nicely voiced with whiny aplomb by Greg Kihlstrom) questions his reason leading an extremely mundane and redundant existence. Oclero develops fangs, a greater appreciation for the taste of the red stuff, and a new positive outlook on life after he drinks the blood from a victim of a lonely and tormented vampire. Writer/director Kihlstrom delivers an amusingly clever and quirky meditation on the basic existential need to have some relevant purpose for being. The animation is impressively fluid and crisp. The groovy mellow jazz score likewise does the trick. Jessica D.K. Schmidt supplies a right-on breathy valley girl voice as Oclero's fed-up female mosquito friend. Nifty surprise ending, too. A total hoot.