Spoilers Below

Its amazing how tastes and people’s attention spans change especially when you consider the past five years. It used to be that plots, character development, and funny dialogue were the most important things when it comes to putting out an animated short. Masters of the craft include the likes of Bill Plympton of whom would definitely give you a short that was so good that you had to re-watch it five times to the point where it didn’t feel like a short. Rather, you re-watched so that you can find all of the Easter eggs hidden throughout the short almost like a puzzle when upon completion you feel satisfied.

Nowadays animated shorts usually come with some sort of tagline about being offensive as possible in a short amount of time and yea I’m OK with that, but every now and again you yearn for something more. But, for every 100 emails that I get ‘Hey John, this short its like Family Guy meets Futurama or South Park meets Aqua Teen’ its nice to come across a video that kinda makes you pay attention so that when a conclusion comes across its a yummier experience. For example, some people like stand-up comics that do short to the point jokes, but I like stories with my jokes like Chris Rock of whom would warm up a joke with a story, then POW POW POW deliver like Ali.

‘The Hidden Life of the Burrowing Owl’ is more like the latter. When first watching you might be on stand by looking for that first gag, but do me a favor. Pause the video and just look. Its an animated short on a beautifully rich nature scene teaming with wild life like snakes, rodents, and of course owls out for revenge. The kick doesn’t happen til the end, and in an era of animators shoveling as many jokes in two minutes its a refreshing change of pace in whats becoming an increasingly saturated market. Narrated by Ed Kibbey and directed by Mike Roush “The Hidden Life of the Burrowing Owl” comes out on April 9th on iTunes after being toured in festivals the world over since 2008. The current gen of animated shorts lovers might not like it, but if you are looking for something different, this short will do just fine.

8.5 out of 10