The frustration of crazy golf embodied by student animation collective Megacomputeur

Megacomputeur’s animation Play-Off has the impeccable sheen of a Pixar animation but, amazingly, was made as part of a four-week internship at Passion Pictures by six students. The collective, comprising Camille Jalabert, Léo Brunel, Quentin Camus, Corentin Yvergniaux, Maryka Laudet and Oscar Malet, looked to embody the frustration of a crazy golf game.

“We wanted to do something about sport, and had this idea of a character who takes it way too seriously,” explain the animators. “We thought it would be funny to have this purist character on a mini golf course, with the game way too intense, being extremely serious in this really calm atmosphere.” The over zealous main character is increasingly wound up by a nearby player, who casually thwarts his efforts at every stage until the brilliantly end.

The characters are intricately detailed and vivid, as the collective favours parodying real-world scenarios with comedic cartoon people. “It forces the personality of our characters to have this ridiculous proportions, so the character can make the audience laugh even before he begins to act, just by his design.”

Inspiration for the film came from “great cartoonists” like Pedro Conti, for his humorous use of proportion, and Aardman characters. The team worked on ideas together to build the story and model the film, before splitting into two groups, one dedicated to animation and the other to imagery. For Play-Off this all took place in-house at Passion Pictures, with regular feedback given to the animators to develop the film, and the collective has now joined Passion Presents, the studio’s development roster.

Given the time and experience of the group, the final result is an exciting prelude to what is sure to be an illustrious career for Megacomputeur.