Whale Taggers Episode 1
Zero In Productions
Creators: Andre Owen, Wu CHui
Length: 8 minute
Watch The Cartoon
Whale Taggers is the first Webisode of a series featuring Mr Yaminoto, a hard working typical Japanese worker who works for a large company but who's also very traditional. Mr Yaminoto is not a pleasant man, unless there's a whale and whale burgers involved. Invited by a peer on social gathering on a boat trip, the pair decides it will hunt some yummy whale.
The characters may look like South Parks characters, but the message behind this cartoon is very down to Earth. While Mr Yaminoto is not the ideal company employee or a team player, he can make compromises. The cartoon will surprise many. Besides the ironic type of comedy used, solemn and quiet, there's also a large degree of truth behind each character's motivations.
This is the type of cartoon where the message the animator has to give is so big, that the rest of the project, visually takes a back seat. While the voice acting is good, and the lines recited by the actors, strong, the animation is very simple. All characters have the same basic bodies. Only ties and moustache differentiate them. More work in the visual identity of the project would help.
Hervé