As a media partner for 2025’s Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology, the Filmmaker Mixer Podcast extended review opportunities to the Official Selections who were made by Portland-based filmmakers.
THE INTENTION INVENTION screens during the Mind-Bending Anomalies: The PFCAT Sci-Fi Extravaganza
Wednesday, August 6, 2025 6:00 PM PDT
The Empirical Theater
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Writer/Director, RJ Sullivan, proves yet again his comedic chops with the short animated film, The Intention Invention. I love the style of the animation- characters, objects and the environment are defined by heavy black outlines, with various base colors that are enhanced by hatching in a different color.
The character’s movements seem to be realistically animated, which is a quality that calls to mind an assignment my daughter completed using the technique: rotoscoping. This is when an animator traces frames of live action video capturing real-time movement and expressions. Some Disney movies had scenes animated with this technique.
Sullivan, who animated this short, may not have used rotoscoping- either way- he achieved an impressive feat when capturing the essence of movement for all the subjects in this short. The moving image of birds circling at the start of the short, charmingly animates the flight and look of birds. In fact, it felt real given his accompanying sound design of birds in flight. I can’t say for sure if he used rotoscoping throughout the animation but if he did not, Sullivan should be commended for his ability to emulate it as such.
The Intention Invention itself is a clever gadget that beams a laser on a subject and transcribes the real meaning behind their voiced statements. And, they are hilarious because what the invention reveals is not subtext. Instead, the translation is more revealing -like the results you’d get using Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth. When it is used on a barking dog, the translation is pure and sweet.
The Intention Invention is a cleverly animated short with characters whose movements seem as real and true as the intentions revealed by the invention.
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