Jasper Morello: stunning steampunk short animated film

The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello, a stunning, award-winning short animated film, is available in full, free, on YouTube.

Nominated for an Oscar and for a BAFTA award, Jasper Morello is a short feature made in a unique style of silhouette animation developed by director Anthony Lucas and inspired by the work of authors Edgar Alan Poe and Jules Verne. In the frontier city of Carpathia, Jasper Morello discovers that his former adversary Doctor Claude Belgon has returned from the grave. When Claude reveals that he knows the location of the ancient city of Alto Mea where the secrets of life have been discovered, Jasper cannot resist the temptation to bring his own dead wife Amelia back. But they are captured by Armand Forgette, leader of the radical Horizontalist anti-technology movement, who is determined to reanimate his terrorist father Vasco. As lightning energises the arcane machineries of life in the floating castle of Alto Mea, Jasper must choose between having his beloved restored or seeing the government of Gothia destroyed. Set in a world of iron dirigibles and steam powered computers, this gothic horror mystery tells the story of Jasper Morello, a disgraced aerial navigator who flees his Plague-ridden home on a desperate voyage to redeem himself.

The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello (Thanks, Quiet Earth)

[#1 posted by Anonymous , March 17, 2009 12:07 AM]

While this is a fantastic series of short films, its also very, very OLD.


This aired on TV here nearly four years ago.

[#2 posted by Anonymous , March 17, 2009 12:35 AM]

Beautiful and wonderful! Thank you for posting. The description, however, seems to be for a sequel, rather than for The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello. I would love to see the sequel, but they didn't need to tell me the WHOLE story to get me to watch one. They had me at "The City of Gothica"...

[#3 posted by Ocker3 , March 17, 2009 1:11 AM]

I love this video, but isn't this the First part of the story, not the second?

[#4 posted by shabu , March 17, 2009 2:12 AM]

I've been championing this film long before steampunk reared its head.

Title is The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello.

Brilliant short film.

[#5 posted by Anonymous , March 17, 2009 7:09 AM]

OMG I love it...!

[#6 posted by jfluty , March 17, 2009 9:03 AM]

See also: Wholphin issue 2.

[#7 posted by Anonymous , March 17, 2009 10:52 AM]

The video linked is actually the first part, so the description for the second part actually contains a few spoilers.

[#8 posted by MCM , March 17, 2009 11:24 AM]

They project that onto the walls at The Edison bar in downtown L.A. all the time:

http://www.willpearson.co.uk/virtual_tours/edison_downtown/edison_downtown-005.php?format=fpp

[#9 posted by gaberussell , March 17, 2009 1:50 PM]

I loved this when I saw it on Wholphin, and I didn't know there was a sequel. Anyone know where that's available?

[#10 posted by Capissen , March 17, 2009 7:32 PM]

@2,3,7 Yep, this is just the first part. I've never actually seen the second. The online store I found that sells it *only* ships within Australia (wtf?), and I can't find it on the tubes. If anyone knows of alternate sources, I'm all ears.

[#11 posted by LOSERKID , March 17, 2009 7:41 PM]

that was so kol