When we watched Tadpoles Looking for their Mother, I was hit with a bit of nostalgia because I’m fairly certain I watched the animation as a child in Chinese school. Watching it again, now, I couldn’t help but laugh a bit at how adorably simple the tadpoles are. Such simply shaped characters with little to no expression but the wiggling of their tails give off so much emotion, and you get so attached to these little guys. The art is absolutely beautiful and the animation is so seamless. As I was watching, I was curious about the process of creating this animation because the medium used can be so hard to be consistent with. For the larger panning shots of the background/setting, I could imagine it being a large painting that the camera simply pans across, but when there are characters moving in front/behind plants (that do not change at all in texture, shape or color) I was scratching my head thinking about how they created those sequences. The animal animation itself is also so well done. The fluidity of the animation looked so natural and had the feeling of motion and weightlessness of being in water. The story was a bit sad and heartbreaking at the beginning when the tadpoles are searching for their mother, but at the end it was heartwarming and joyful.
- Lilian