Pan with Us was part of The Animation Show 2005 presented by Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeld, a collection worth seeing for anyone interested in animation and/or the bizarre twisted minds of artists. This was perhaps one of the most astonishing and captivating films within the collection, straying far from traditional animation. The short is based on (and recites) the poem by the same name written by Robert Frost from A Boy's Will,1915. The dichotomy of man and art, the natural and the man made is the point of the poem itself and is carried into the animated short through David Russo's own manipulation of art through the city. Pan is troubled by the modern world that encroaches on the natural. He discards his pipes for song birds and wonders what this new world will bring. On top of the poem itself, this short was a masterpiece of animation, preformed by holding pictures or rolling scrolls one frame at a time across our human landscape. Russo shows that there is a separation between the arts and the industrial that must be addressed.
Review of Pan with Us
