Love Tricycle: Special Edition (2003)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Animation	Main Menu Audio Featurette-Production Comparisons: Compare 4 Stages Of Production Gallery-Concept Art, Production Art, 3D Models, Publicity Theatrical Trailer Production Notes Biographies-Crew-Filmmakers
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	13:22
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Andrew Goode
Studio Distributor	Rendition Films Rendition Films	Starring	None Given
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	$14.95	Music	Ross McLennan

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Audio Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Isolated Music Score Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Isolated Effects Track Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Well, this one certainly came out of left field. I knew nothing about this release up until a press release appeared on this site. I was intrigued and accordingly asked to review this disc once it hit our office. I am extremely happy that I did, especially considering that now I have seen this great little film and can spread the word.

    Love Tricycle is a 3D animated short film put together by five guys in Queensland, lead by Director/Producer, Andrew Goode. The film involves romance, jealousy, danger, fights and comedy without resorting to dialogue to convey the message. The story is portrayed by music, sound effects and the incredibly detailed animation. The characters are mostly bicycles of various descriptions but also includes their pet skateboards and bicycle bells with wings.

    The main characters are Beau, a bachelor bicycle looking for love, Bec, an attractive female bike (you can tell because she doesn't have a bicycle pump!), Harley, her dangerous BMX ex-boyfriend and Ollie her pet skateboard. The town of Rimside also has a number of other residents including Sarge, a war veteran bicycle and many other male and female bikes. The detail in the town is amazing and includes many amusingly named businesses such as Cogs Breath Cafe, Tacho Bell, Food Chain, and so on. I think you would need to watch the film many times to pick up all the background jokes. Luckily, the film only runs for just over 13 minutes, so you can (and probably will). This might all sound a bit strange, however, this film is a lot of fun, giving you laughs and leaving you with a 'smile on your dial'.

    The amount of effort involved in producing this film is obviously incredible. Andrew Goode started working on it in 1997 and the animation is very detailed. The rest of the creative team was added later once funding was granted by the Pacific Film and Television Commission. The team includes production designer Cameron Small, artist Russell Ladewig, Composer Ross McLennan and sound designer John Willsteed. Before being released on this DVD the film had been screened at over 40 international film festivals winning quite a few awards including some for best overall film.

    I am not sure how widely this DVD will be available as it does not seem to have a major distributor, however it can certainly be purchased through the Love Tricycle web site at www.lovetricycle.com . The recommended retail price is a very reasonable $14.95.

    If you are a fan of animation and want to support a top quality Australian project, do yourself a favour......

Video

    The video quality is excellent.

    The feature is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise.

    The colour was excellent throughout with all colours being well saturated and free from colour bleeding.

    There were no noticeable artefacts.

    There are no subtitles but since there is no dialogue I don't think that's a problem.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is very good.

    This DVD contains three audio options, a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 384 Kb/s, an isolated score soundtrack in Dolby Digital 2.0 at 192 Kb/s and an isolated effects soundtrack in Dolby Digital 2.0 at 192 Kb/s. The 5.1 track is really good and the other two give you the ability to break the soundtrack down into its component parts.

    The score of this film by Ross McLennan suits the film well, adding to the whimsical atmosphere and holding the production together. The sound effects by John Willsteed are also excellent.

    The surround speakers are used regularly during the 5.1 track, adding sound effects from various angles which really add to the sound.

    The subwoofer was not used very much, but considering the nature of the film, this is to be expected.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu includes music and photos from the film.

Production Comparisons (12:39)

    This section allows you to compare the four stages of film development in this project for the full length of the feature. The four stages are storyboard, layout (3D draft), animation (without shadows and lighting) and final. They can either be viewed separately using the angle button to switch between them or with all four versions on the screen at once. This gives an incredible insight into the stages of the animation process and is much more interesting that standard storyboard comparisons.

Gallery

    This includes an incredible 874 images related to the film broken into four major categories (and many minor ones). The major categories are concept art, production art, 3D models and publicity. This gave a real insight into the amount of work which went into creating this short film including the many different characters and the level of detail in their design. This would be of great interest to student animators.

Trailer (0:31)

    This is a short trailer for the film which effectively gets you interested in the project. This is only available in MPEG 2.0 audio which (at least on my equipment) required a change in audio setting to hear it.

Production Notes

    Approximately 15 pages of text describing the various stages of the production and the process from idea to funding to completion. Well worth a read.

Filmmakers

    Biographies of the 5 creative people involved. One is more focused on hair length than actually providing much detail.

    This disc is coded for all regions and is available in either NTSC or PAL. This review is based on the PAL version.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The disc has a reasonable selection of interesting extras. It would have been great to see some featurettes about the project, however I understand that this is a low budget production and that may not have been possible.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall