Potion Shop Review

Potion Shop

Potion shop is a thesis film by Temmie Chang. While Chang did the animation, she had the help of many others, including Toby Fox, who composed the original piece playing in the background of the animation. Chang's animation tells the story of a cat who runs a potion shop, but seems to be having issues getting any business until she saves the day by driving off a young dragon. Though all seems well, it is not, and the cat goes to make amends with the dragon, and in the process make new friends. The story is told through great character design and personality, talented animation and an expressive soundtrack.

Thoughts

The first thing that really stands out to me about this short film is the colors. The colors Chang decided to use really fit well with the given situation, and when the plot turns darker, the colors follow suit. On my next project this is something I would like to try and use, as I thought it really brought out parts of the story.

I also noticed that Chang used a multi-plane when showing the town at the beginning of the story to give depth to the animation. This is one of the first things we learned in class, and it really helps to show that different parts of the scenery don't all move together, and are further away from one another.

I feel as though when the crowd was shown running up to the cave, Chang could have improved that bit by animating the crowd a little more than just having them as a mass of color moving towards the cave. This is something I noticed is common in American animation, and it may have been an issue with time since Chang seemed to imply that this took a while to make in the description of the film.

Conclusion

Overall, I thought that this short film was super cute, and really well told. The colors and design were appealing to the eye, the soundtrack was fantastic, and the story was interesting. Chang's other work seems to all be really well made too, and I'm excited to see more from her.