By Will Barber Taylor

Two adventurous lemurs navigate their dirigibles halfway around the world to a place where happenstance and fate threaten to disrupt their reunion.

Silent animated films are not always the most popular with the film going public – they tend to be put off by the lack of speaking parts and the fact no real people appear. Yet there are many excellent silent animated films which not only tell an imaginative, engaging story but are also visually stunning. Two Balloons is such a film. An exhilarating adventure that has passion at its heart, the film needs to be seen to be believed. The use of animation is spectacular and goes beyond what is normally conceived as being possible with the medium – Two Balloons creates a thrilling world like no other that you’ll see in most modern animated films. A great deal of modern animation is more interested in reusing overly referential memes and failing to tell interesting and new stories that can excite an audience as well as solicit empathy from them. Two Balloons simplistic, steam punky story of two pioneering lemurs manages to avoid all the clichés of modern animation and produce an utterly breath-taking and gorgeous piece of art.

The design of the sets for the film are exquisite, particularly the two air crafts that the lemurs use to travel. The mixture of elegance and a unique design means that the world that is presented is utterly compelling and believable. A great deal of praise must go to the set designers for constructing such astonishing works of art.

In conclusion, Two Balloons is an exciting and innovative piece of work that has to be seen to be fully appreciated. It takes you on a journey filled with love, adventure and excitement. I would highly recommend this to anyone regardless of whether they are fans of animation or not. If you don’t appreciate animation as an art form then you will after seeing this film.

You can read my interview with the director and producer of the film here.