An eye popping visual feast from the creative masterminds at Studio4°C, Genius Party brings together seven of Japan's best-known animators to craft a series of shorts designed to stimulate both the eyes and the imagination. After basking in the beauty of Atsuko Fukushima's introductory segment, Cat Soup director Masaaki Yuasa steps in to explore a young child's earliest year in the simple yet dreamlike "Happy Machine." Things take a turn for the spooky as a child's imagination ventures into darker territories in Shinji Kimura's "Deathtic 4," and Hideki Futamura explores a strange virtual reality in "Limit Cycle." Yuji Fukuyama and Shinichiro Watanabe explore the surreal underpinnings of reality in "Doorbell" and "Baby Blue" respectively, and things wind to a close as Shoji Kawamori toys playfully with traditional anime conventions in "Shanghai Dragon."
by Jason Buchanan
synopsis
