Nova Seed has to be watched with the context that this was made by one dude and his small group of friends. Animated by himself over the course of four years with an incredibly small cast lending their voices not just to characters but also to sound effects, Nova Seed is a triumph of independent animation that a lot of the “Animation Is Cinema” crowd had overlooked because it didn’t have the same polish as, say, a show about demons running a hotel or wasn’t immediately identifiable as satire as, say, stick figures talking about the future.
You can see the seams of Nova seed and yet that does not take away from the effectiveness of its story. Rather, it enhances it. The shaky lines give it a gritty quality that feel like doodles come to life but with the complete seriousness of how a school student would imagine a post-apocalyptic world in their head. Frivolous to those not engaging in the thought experiment, but with such weight and gravitas to those who have immersed themselves in the world. Those who can create with such limits already upon them are going to be able to make so much more when those limits are lifted, theoretically.
Nova Seed’s story is straightforward. Progress being the means by which we avert disaster. Progress being pushed back against due to it being seen as a threat. War being the downfall of a species. The mutant animals that stand to be the future of the planet are hunted and destroyed despite being innocent of their own creation much like all of us are. We bear no sins being born and yet we inherit all of them. Nova Seed’s hope for the future is one that expects no inheritance of sin, that life can be born new even if created with ill-intent initially. Pure creation must be allowed to flourish, even with its imperfections
Nova Seed has to be watched with the context that this was made by one dude and his small group of friends. Animated by himself over the course of four years with an incredibly small cast lending their voices not just to characters but also to sound effects, Nova Seed is a triumph of independent animation that a lot of the “Animation Is Cinema” crowd had overlooked because it didn’t have the same polish as, say, a show about demons running a hotel or wasn’t immediately identifiable as satire as, say, stick figures talking about the future.
You can see the seams of Nova seed and yet that does not take away from the effectiveness of its story. Rather, it enhances it. The shaky lines give it a gritty quality that feel like doodles come to life but with the complete seriousness of how a school student would imagine a post-apocalyptic world in their head. Frivolous to those not engaging in the thought experiment, but with such weight and gravitas to those who have immersed themselves in the world. Those who can create with such limits already upon them are going to be able to make so much more when those limits are lifted, theoretically.
Nova Seed’s story is straightforward. Progress being the means by which we avert disaster. Progress being pushed back against due to it being seen as a threat. War being the downfall of a species. The mutant animals that stand to be the future of the planet are hunted and destroyed despite being innocent of their own creation much like all of us are. We bear no sins being born and yet we inherit all of them. Nova Seed’s hope for the future is one that expects no inheritance of sin, that life can be born new even if created with ill-intent initially. Pure creation must be allowed to flourish, even with its imperfections
