May 20, 2020

Revolution, Cubism, and a Love Letter to Cinema: "Revoltoso," an Epic Stop-Motion Short from Mexico (Exclusive Online Premiere)

When Arturo "Vonno" Ambriz earned his degree in film and television in Mexico City, he had trouble finding a company that would support the films he wanted to make. His solution was as simple as it was bold. He teamed up with his brother Roy to create their own studio, Cinema Fantasma.

From the beginning, Cinema Fantasma operated as a vehicle to produce Revoltoso, a colorful and ambitious 30-minute stop-motion short set in 1913 during the Mexican Revolution. An eccentric landowner pits a herd of semi-tame boars against a ragtag rebel army, and a cameraman hired by the landowner documents the events with a film camera. "Revoltoso" is available exclusively on Cartoon Brew. Watch it below:

The Mexican Revolution was one of the first conflicts ever captured on film, and in "Revoltoso" the camera takes on totemic significance, serving various roles as a symbol of vanity, travel, imagination, and hope. The short ends as a tribute to cinema itself and its ability to inspire peace.

The Ambris brothers wanted to make a film like this. They didn't care that they had no money or that they had never made stop-motion animation before. They persevered, hiring friends and family, learning the craft, and generating funds through commercial side projects (including six promotional shorts for Cartoon Network Latin America). This project caught the attention of Guillermo del Toro and Jorge Gutierrez, who endorsed it.

Through this production, Cinema Fantasma became established as a studio. Today, it counts NFL Mexico and Adult Swim among its clients, and while it took five years to produce Revoltoso, Vonno now believes he can produce a feature film in two years. Below, he tells Cartoon Brew why he chose revolution as the subject matter, what it took for him to continue, and how he caught the eye of a high-profile sponsor. A short making-of video is included below.

Vonno Ambriz: We have worked together for a long time because we are brothers, less than two years apart. (When we thought about the subject matter for the film) we thought it should be about why we chose to become artists - to do good. We deeply believe that art can help people heal and spread compassion. Characters in film and literature help us understand more about people and their emotions and motivations, and Revoltoso seeks to explore the role of film in war and conflict as a metaphor for our contemporary lives.

Most of us on the production team met in college. Most of the crew was made up of friends and family, including my parents Adriana and Rodolfo, who were the producers, and my then-girlfriend (now wife) Irene Melis, who was the director of photography. Since the film's completion, many of us have worked together on other commercial and personal projects.

We spent five years working on this film full time. We had no idea how to do stop-motion animation (or at all), so we had to try a lot of things and learn from scratch. We learned by watching making-of documentaries for "The Nightmare Before Christmas," "Fantastic Mr. Fox," and "King Kong. I paused the videos to take notes and sketches of technical equipment and set-ups.

The creation of the puppets, sets, props, and storyboards took over two years. The filming and animation phase took about a year and a half. The rest was post-production and reshoots. A significant amount of time each week for the last five years was spent trying to obtain the budget needed to complete the film. I had the support of my parents, friends, and family. We had a wonderful executive producer, Alejandro Ibarola, and other associate producers contributed as well.

The production designer was Roy. While exploring how to approach the aesthetics of film, we went to an exhibition on cubism. There was a large section called "Film and Cubism" that explored how cubist artists were inspired by the first films and the idea of capturing movement on a single canvas. This led to a long process of historical and artistic research that led us in the right direction. It is also worth noting that the Mexican Revolution was taking place at the same time that the cubist movement was beginning in Europe.

Critical to this work was the involvement of Guillermo del Toro. Guillermo del Toro supported our Kickstarter campaign and advised us on various cuts during the editing process. We had previously written to him on other projects, and when he saw our campaign he wrote back excitedly. He encouraged us to keep doing what we were doing and told us to be prepared, especially since making films in Mexico is always a struggle. He invited us to have breakfast with him and Jorge Gutierrez and showed them our puppets.

We had long been fans of Screen Novelties. We wrote to their Vimeo account and they responded. Since then, a great relationship has grown. Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh spent a week in Mexico City and graciously accepted our proposal to animate some of the shots in Revoltoso. They taught us a lot about animation," said Walsh. The scene where Axolotl plays music is a tribute to their short film "Graveyard Jamboree with Mysterious Mose".

The project was constantly evolving. We didn't have commercial expectations and didn't care to conform to industry standards of length (or narrative). Sometimes we wondered if it would have been better to make a feature film. With the knowledge we have gathered, we can now produce a feature film in two years.

We have a very author-driven perspective and love to see animated films and series like that. [When we founded Cinema Fantasma, our goal was to combine everything we love, animation and cinema, with the fun of cinematography. There is a growing number of interesting Mexican animation studios and we are excited about the projects they are developing. This art form is evolving rapidly in our country.