Reaper, sheeper, treasure seeker: three great tastes that taste great together. In a sort of Altmanesque way the lives of the Grim Reaper, an omnivorous (in the truest sense of this word) sheep, and a gang of carpooling, yet plenty rowdy, pirates are all drawn together.
The animation quality itself would rate about a 6, but so spirited are the goings-on that it's easy to overlook some technical limitations. Director Dave Lieber has done a wonderful job of creating a very sympathetic Death character, who chills with a Corona back at his modest pad between his appointments with the very recently departed. Since it's rather short (c. 10min) and to describe it in too great of detail would be to destroy the inventive magic of this piece, I'll just say that you'll probably look a bit more closely at milk expiration dates, duck crossings and SHEEEEEP after viewing this little ditty.
Attention to detail is the crown jewel in this film, and nowhere is it more evident than in the sound design. Silently carpooling pirates in full regalia w/ cutlasses listen to radio reports of found booty; Death enters his various scenes with a signature doorway complete with an audial aura; and, let me emphasize this, YOU WILL NEVER FORGET THE BRAY OF THIS SHEEP IN YOUR LIFETIME. Add a wonderfully lush bizzaro music bed, and it' becomes an intriguing mix of the boisterous and the banal. Reaper Sheeper's appeal isn't quite universal, and there's a bit too much repetition to rate a 10, but if you like great weird claymation, obviously made with love and wack humor, here's a great jewel to unearth.
I say unearth, because it's probably gonna be difficult to find this baby. As of this writing, it doesn't appear on Youtube. I happened to see it during the New Orleans Film Festival back in 2003, and I've never heard another soul mention it. I just google-searched it and found it had an IMDb entry, and, well, here we are. Well worth the look, though; I can tell you that.
The animation quality itself would rate about a 6, but so spirited are the goings-on that it's easy to overlook some technical limitations. Director Dave Lieber has done a wonderful job of creating a very sympathetic Death character, who chills with a Corona back at his modest pad between his appointments with the very recently departed. Since it's rather short (c. 10min) and to describe it in too great of detail would be to destroy the inventive magic of this piece, I'll just say that you'll probably look a bit more closely at milk expiration dates, duck crossings and SHEEEEEP after viewing this little ditty.
Attention to detail is the crown jewel in this film, and nowhere is it more evident than in the sound design. Silently carpooling pirates in full regalia w/ cutlasses listen to radio reports of found booty; Death enters his various scenes with a signature doorway complete with an audial aura; and, let me emphasize this, YOU WILL NEVER FORGET THE BRAY OF THIS SHEEP IN YOUR LIFETIME. Add a wonderfully lush bizzaro music bed, and it' becomes an intriguing mix of the boisterous and the banal. Reaper Sheeper's appeal isn't quite universal, and there's a bit too much repetition to rate a 10, but if you like great weird claymation, obviously made with love and wack humor, here's a great jewel to unearth.
I say unearth, because it's probably gonna be difficult to find this baby. As of this writing, it doesn't appear on Youtube. I happened to see it during the New Orleans Film Festival back in 2003, and I've never heard another soul mention it. I just google-searched it and found it had an IMDb entry, and, well, here we are. Well worth the look, though; I can tell you that.