What is it about?
Humans have vanished into whispered legend and animals have regained ownership of the land, sea and sky. Our story is about one particular frog: Scarred inside and out, the old samurai is haunted by ghosts of a life of violence in the Frog Wars. He melts his sword into a golf club and vows never to kill again. A gruff, solitary creature, he wants nothing to do with any other living beast, and especially not his hated ancient enemies the Turtles. All he wants is to be left alone to spend his remaining years at peace on the golf course. As fate would have it, one bad swing sets off a course of events that put him in the unwilling position of caring for a baby - but not just any baby, the infant prince of the turtle clan! Pursued by enemies old and new, our hero must set off on a long and dangerous journey to return the baby to his homeland. With his tamahage driver and his caddy, the sage but forgetful sugar-glider by his side, the trio travel across a vast and perilous land. Through the adventure, our hero must learn to overcome his own prejudice, forgive ancient enemies and himself, and heal the wounds of the past. If our hero is to reach his goal and find his own redemption, he must take this sage bit of advice from his caddy: “To move forward, you must be like the turtle. He only progresses when he sticks out his neck.”
Featured Image
Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash
Why is it important?
With the support of the Japan government J-LOD Subsidy we have created a new animated film quite unlike anything produced before at Marza: “Samurai Frog Golf”. It features two of Marza's proprietary animation tools: ShapeMeshing 2.0 and the until now unpublished Time Filter system. These tools combined with an orchestral soundtrack composed by the award winning David Arcus (Knuckleball, TheHaircut), and the skill of our guerilla animation team give the film a unique look and feel.
Perspectives
Making Samurai Frog Golf (SFG) was a dream project. It is rare that a studio puts their full support behind an original concept, so I am thankful to the entire team at Marza Animation Planet who made my first studio short possible. Production was a breakneck adventure; we had to squeeze the most out of our 18-week schedule. Cuts had to be made, and I had to omit some of my favorite moments. But we made a punchy, streamlined story that works. The orchestral score was arranged by my longtime friend David Arcus. I must have listened to different incarnations of the SFG theme a thousand times and I’m still discovering new subtle details. I was beyond excited when SIGGRAPH announced they had chosen our film for the 2022 Computer Animation Festival Electronic Theater. SIGGRAPH has always been one of my favorite industry events, and one I always try to visit in person. It is a true honor to be chosen, especially because this year’s event takes place in my home country. I cannot wait to see how the audience reacts, and I hope that SFG shows the world what Marza is all about.
Brent Forrest
Marza Animation Planet Inc.
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This page is a summary of: Samurai frog golf, August 2022, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3512752.3527270.
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