Meaning "the race to the bottom" this short film sees two figures on horses moving through a landscape that contains others in movement, while an opera plays over the top. This animation is simple to describe but better to experience as it does one thing but does it mostly very well. Despite not being a fan of opera, I can appreciate the tone of it and the way that it builds and moves and peaks in a way that it is dramatic and compelling when well delivered. This is one such piece here and it works well to draw the viewer into the movement of the animation. As a story there is nothing to really discuss on the surface of it, but the movement of the images is well placed with the music so that it does feel like we have something with an uniform flow and delivery.
The style of animation is like an oil painting – not a hugely detailed one but oil on canvas for sure and often you can see and feel the strokes of the brush. This sense is maintained even though the figures move and the eye of the viewer via the camera is taken around the painting and it works very well as a style and the artistic feel of it as "classical" art (as oil on canvas makes me feel anyway) fits well with the "proper" art of the opera. As a piece of art it works very well and feels meatier and more satisfying than I would have expected.