I’m a huge fan of animation, and why shouldn’t I be? It’s one of the most versatile and creative mediums in all of motion picture. It can take you to dark and scary visions of the future or perfectly-realized images of the past, create characters that would be nigh-impossible to attempt in live action, and allow animals to walk around on two legs and talk and stuff. And solve crimes, he asked rhetorically knowing the answer? Yes, especially then.

Whilst scouring through Vimeo, I happened upon an image that caught my eye: a sepia-toned portrait of a pig with a bowler hat and mutton chops and a tiny kitten in a constable’s uniform. “What’s this?” I did say. It’s a short piece of animation entitled The Casebook of Nips & Porkington. I mean, come ON! I was going to click on it at that point regardless. It could have been 2 minutes of that one still image and I’d have at least been kept interested.

Luckily, it’s so much more than that. Filmmaker and animation student Melody Wang created this short, which takes the titular crime-fighting duo through a Victorian-era newspaper to track down a kidnapped egg. Enjoy!

The Casebook of Nips & Porkington (2015) from Melody Wang on Vimeo.

A Sheridan 4th year animated short film done primarily in Toonboom Harmony and Photoshop.

www.nipsandporkington.tumblr.com
www.mellowatt.com
www.mellowatt.tumblr.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mellowatt/1446255342343757

Film by Melody Wang
Score by Xintong Wang

Voice Talents
Elaine Wise as Constable Nips
Elliot Cowan as Porkington, the rat, and Mr. Goose
Kirsten Lloyd as Mrs. Goose

Mentors
Nancy Beiman
Bruno Degazio

Minions
Danial Darabi
Rui Hao
Jack Hincenbergs
Marissa Iavazzi
Ruby Xia
Xin Wu

The way Wang weaves the animated characters and settings through the newspaper is simply astounding. It gives the short a real grounding in, of all things, reality, and allows for wonderment to follow afterwards. I only wish it were longer than it is! I could easily see this being a feature film or a 13-episode serial.

There’s a Tumblr Wang put together with lots of promotional material and workprint images. Definitely go there to see more of Nips and Porkington, those two amazing sleuths. And find more of her animations on her Vimeo page.