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This week's SATURDAY SHORTS will poke you in the stomach and make you giggle!

Hello ladies and gentlemen, Muldoon here chiming in from Fantastic Fest with this week's SATURDAY SHORTS. A few weeks back we had a comedy block that, while I found them all funny, might not have been the knee slapper you might've expected. I should've made it clear "These shorts are black comedies," so my apologies to the filmmakers/you fine folk for accidentally misrepresenting that week's barrage of fun if you went in expecting something slightly different.

That said, this week is indeed a knee-slapping fun fest of "fuck, that's funny" that I think you guys and gals might get a kick out of. We've got a handful of silly fun shorts that all managed to put a smile on my face and creatively are all over the place with some pretty fun/silly concepts. One things certain - they're all executed quite nicely. They all seem to stick the landing for me. Granted you might not agree and that's totally A-okay, but feel free to shoot out your thoughts in the Talkback below. It's always interesting getting feedback from fellow Ain't It Cool readers and you never know who could be in the audience - hopefully some of the filmmakers from this week's selection.

Go grab yourself some popcorn, lock your kids in a closet, kill the lights, relax and check out this little weekly film fest we've got ourselves here:

DISNEYLAND PITCH OUTTAKES

TRT: 5:10

Up first is a funny little dip into the wonderful world of Disney, a short shot in by Trevor Kelly. "In fall 1954 Walt Disney filmed his introduction of Disneyland to the general public. Unfortunately this footage was deemed unusable and was locked away in a vault never to be seen again. Until now..."
 

 

PAC-MAN (Live Action Reboot)

TRT: 3:29

"Two men find themselves trapped and on the run from a nightmarish creature.  A gritty live action reboot wherein CGI monsters are spooky scary.  Directed by Brad Cannady with sweet, sweet VFX by the same guy."

 

GARRETT FINKLE IS NOT A WIZARD

TRT: 5:33

And here we have director Braedon Gosse's take on the age old "Hey, son... you can't stay here anymore - you have to move out and get a job" situation. "When a mysterious letter arrives at their house, The Finkle family must convince their son to abandon his dreams of skip-rope fame, move out of the house and follow his true calling--at Wizarding School." 

Garrett Finkle is Not a Wizard (**Winner of The H24 Film Festival**) from Kiel on Vimeo.

 

GUYS NIGHT OUT!

TRT: 2:28

Here we find ourseves filmmaker Dan Zachary's film where "Three friends on a 'Guys Night Out' of heavy drinking, soon come to realize that one of them may in fact be... a drunken clown."

 

BATMAN: INSATIABLE HUNGER

TRT: 1:03

And lastly for this week we have a minute long joke that ought to put a smile on your face. There's nothing gut busting here, but damn it - I dig it and it make me chuckle, so why not wrap up this week with it? Keith Love and a pal shot this puppy in their comic book shop (facebook.com/fandemoniumcomics) over the course of a few hours. It's pretty obvious they were having a good time making this and I think that totally comes through.

 

And that's it for this week ladies and gents. I'll see you next time with (hopefully) a ton of scary horror shorts that will blow your mind. Thanks for reading/watching and hey, if you feel like checking out more SATURDAY SHORTS, click any of the links below:

Genre Explosions

Mixed Genre Bag

Mixed Bag

Horror/SciFi

Comedy

Mixed Bag

Horror

Genre Mix

Mixed Bag

Mix

Drama/Thriller

Mixed Bag

Comedy

Animated

Horror/SciFi

Comedy

Mixed Genre Bag

Drama

SciFi

Horror

SciFi

Animated

Supernatural Goodness

Comedy

SciFi Explosions With Aliens

Comedy

Mixed Bag

Science Fiction

Creature Features

Drama

Animation Craziness

Mixed bag of Awesome

Dark Comedy Extravaganza

Random Bits of Fun

If you have a short and think it belongs here or are on the fence about whether to send it in, please do send it in - I'd love to see what you've put together. I've already seen hundreds of fresh new filmmakers' shorts and like any good addict, I need more!

Shoot me an email at "Mike@aintitcool.com"

In the subject line include:

“SHORTS” + “Your film’s name” + “The film’s genre”

Then, in the body of the email, please include a synopsis of the film and any contact information you might think I need or would want published.

Please don’t feel the need to submit multiple times.  I swear to each of you I truly check every email I get, and sending the same short a few times just makes it a bit messier.

Remember, the filmmakers might still be in the audience, so feel free to share your thoughts in Talkbacks below. (JUST DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE). I picked them, so you know I think highly of all of these, but how about you fine folks? How'd you like 'em?

 

 

- Mike McCutchen

"Muldoon"

Mike@aintitcool.com

  

Readers Talkback
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  • September 22, 2012 1:51 PM CST

    third

    by larsson

  • September 22, 2012 2:19 PM CST

    Stomache?

    by Number_Six

    Is that what you get if you eat Batman's sandwich? The Batmannaise just sounds nasty ;)

  • ... that was stupid. These are supposed to be cool? -- End of Line --

  • The Star Trek bit was good.

  • I was under the impression that you usually watch these.. did this one fall through the cracks or what?

  • September 22, 2012 6:14 PM CST

    SATURDAY SHORTS — aka — Hold that thought!

    by justmyluck

    DISNEYLAND PITCH OUTTAKES Ironic we get this with news that booze will soon be served in *The Magic Kingdoms*. While a few books have covered Disney's alcoholism, it never seemed to curtail his efforts and, as for secret Masonism — that one's still not on the record books. Faux doc is a case of far too many ad-lib goings on. While lead actor snags a few laughs, it gets nastier than parody; definitely nastier than Disney could have ever been to have accomplished so much from poor beginnings to bankruptcy and finally, to wealth. Not trying to be a Walt Disney apologist — it's just that a successful caricature must pronounce its subject's similarities. PAC-MAN (LIVE ACTION REBOOT) Similar issues. Selling these kind of reboots demands absorption of the original (consider inexpensively stamping the boxes in the warehouse as cherries, apples and the other marching prizes from the game, dying the jumpsuits to match the different ghost colors, etc.). From a Pac-Man player of the day, CG dots and ghost emblems not enough to bring on the required homage/nostalgia factor. The other thing missing is teeth for the lethal gobbler, and it might have been a hoot to see him transform from *cute* to *Jaws* in such a manner. This project appears more of a gathering of emerging talents and, as that, it's glued together fine. GARRETT FINKLE IS NOT A WIZARD Casting older for the parents (and ditching the paste-on mustache, bigger than Harry Potter's broom) might have flushed the *Saturday Night Live* feel out of this home movie of sorts. I see where the writing was trying to go: parents selling a promising future in order for a child to take work, and *the bullshit of it all*. Again, we're in a situation where the source shouldn't be ridiculed with literal parody (which undermines EVERYTHING), but referenced enough to present the underlying message. *Dad* was fairly pro with the dialog (cards?), considering 24-hour production limit. Project does have *do it yourself* charm, but needed a lighter touch. GUYS NIGHT OUT Drunkenness, again; paste-on mustache, again; Pinocchio on Pleasure Island; donkey = clown...Disney returns! Stages of Y chromosome stunt drinking well-observed, though soft acting, over-lit subjects and imbalanced, canned sound design don't quite sell *night out*. As a promo for a racy young-adult apparel website...I dunno, but waitress looks a bit like Caroline Munro in more than one way! BATMAN: INSATIABLE HUNGER Cute & short. Record needle sound effect conflicts, though — try selling the whole thing straight for *new and improved* humor. Overall this week = twisted relations!

  • September 22, 2012 7:19 PM CST

    sorry, all of those were terrible this week. weak.

    by future help

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLclGPr7fj4 a bulldog that skates and surfs...just to help you all feel a little better

  • September 22, 2012 7:24 PM CST

    Another weak week...

    by AMchannelEpicwish@Youtube

    Is it just me, or is there a shortage of good shorts now? Disney - went on to long. However, pulling out the gun moment was funny. Pac man - overly produced with little payoff. Other three - felt pointless and uninspired.

  • September 22, 2012 8:34 PM CST

    justmyluck - thank you once again for the breakdown!

    by Mennen

  • September 23, 2012 1:45 AM CST

    Wow

    by Muldoon

    Love all the positivity today. Truly makes it fun to keep this going to support short films. I'll be here next week, maybe you'll like those - maybe not - though at this point I could care less. I just wanted to create a space for people to show off their work, yet consistently feel like this is just another thread for trolls to hit up and bitch in. Just keep in mind, I'm not asking you to "like" a page for your Facebook or asking you to donate to a kickstarter/buy something in an ad off amazon, I'm just trying to show you something you might have not seen otherwise.

  • September 23, 2012 7:31 AM CST

    Thanks Muldoon !

    by Industrious Angel

    "Disneyland" was part spot-on but went on for too long as others have already observed. "Pac-Man" has a nice idea sloppily executed (and shouldn't be called Pac-Man of course); timing and aesthetics are off. "Garrett Finkle is not a Wizard": Same problem: Good idea, weak execution. Maybe I didn't get some jokes as I never watched "Harry Potter". "Guys Night Out" is not as good as some other shorts about drunks that ran here before. There's simply nothing likeable about these guys. "Insatiable Hunger" is indeed the best this week.

  • September 23, 2012 11:21 AM CST

    Dont know why I find the Disney one so distasteful

    by deelzbub

    It's like some Will Ferrell-wannabe is pissing on the memory of one of the greatest visionaries of the modern world. That's probably why.

  • September 23, 2012 1:11 PM CST

    Muldoon, you're being overtly sensitive....

    by john

    These are not your shorts, but like any artist, when one puts his work out there, he opens it up to scrutiny and criticism. If we aren't supposed to like/hate them, then why make the films in the first place? And more locally, here in AICN, if we're not supposed to criticize them, then why have an open talkback? Other than maybe one snarky comment - all of these talkback posts have been fair and brought in valid points as to why they didn't like the shorts.

  • September 23, 2012 2:06 PM CST

    Unnecessarily sensitive...

    by AMchannelEpicwish@Youtube

    I've actually enjoyed this weekly page. And for the most part you've picked some cool shorts. Just lately (I've felt) the quality has diminished. I don't think there is anything wrong with pointing that out. You can ignore that or not...that's your call.

  • September 23, 2012 8:51 PM CST

    Relax Muldoon.

    by adeceasedfan

    damn.