Ujbaz Izbeneki Has Lost His Soul (2007) User Reviews

Exceedingly professional in style

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 3 November 2008]

This is a short animated film that is incredibly polished and professional looking--especially when you consider that the folks who made this film are relative newcomers. The voices, the animation and the great sense of humor make the whole package look very, very good indeed.

The story is very simple. An odd man named Ujbaz is sent into Satan's office in Hell because somehow his soul became lost and no one knows where it got to. In fact, lots of little things begin disappearing the longer he stays there.

As far as the animation goes, I assume while it looks like traditional stop-motion Claymation it was instead created using a computer program, as the whole thing looks so smooth and seamless. Regardless, it looks great, has a few nice laughs and the utter absurdity of the dialog and setting made me smile.

Excellent!!

[naamati_g · 10/10 · 2 April 2008]

I saw this short cartoon in Ron Diamond's Show of Shows in the Jerusalem Cinematheuqe on March 9th (which was also my birthday). Show of shows is basically a showing of about 15 animated shorts from around the world, from the Oscar winning 'Peter and the Wolf', to works done by animation students. Most of the people that where there were involved in animation, with a few people who just really like cartoons/animation, such as me. At the end of the evening I thought for a while what was my favorite short, and although there were a few amazing pieces, my hands on favorite is without a doubt "Ujbez Izbeneku Has Lost His Soul" by Neil Jack. The film itself is about 5 minutes long, so let my try to explain about it without revealing too much. Basically, Ujbaz (what a name!) is very good at losing things, and has somehow managed to lose his soul. He is sent to a devil (or the devil) to report it. The rest you will have to see for yourself, but let me tell you that the animation is amazing and it is very very funny. Even a few weeks after seeing this I still think about it and laugh to myself. I'm not sure where you can get a copy of "Show of Shows" but it shouldn't be to hard to order a copy from the web. I know not a lot of people see these short animation films, but if you have a chance to see this and the rest of the "Show of Shows" you won't be disappointed!!