Bird Village

Who is Scott Cawthon? I had never heard of him before, but he is a gifted computer animator with an eye for creating rich, detailed, and often beautiful backgrounds and truly unique digital creatures. Bird Village, a set of three episodes featuring a lively fellow named Beak and his other bird (and bee) cohorts, offers not only colorful computer animation, but some smart ideas as well. Especially pleasing is a chameleon-like character named Camo, who fades in and out of the picture, blending with the scenery in a texturally clever way, while another character, a giant snowball-fighting machine, could have popped out of one of my grade-school fantasies. Cawthon appears to be inspired by videogame imagery, but his creations have much more dimension than your typical cyber-romp. Still, the production does need a tweak or two before it is ready for prime time. It sounds like the same person is doing all of the character voices, and even though innovative techniques are used to give the voices variety, a wider range of voice talent would have really enhanced the episodes. In addition, the audio track is uneven (a little background ambience would have helped mask the transitions), and the "aux" input display from the dubbing VCR is seen briefly between episodes. Perhaps the true test, however, was my 4-year-old son, who wanted to watch the video repeatedly, and was fascinated by the creatures living in Bird Village. Optional. Aud: P. (C. Block)