Comments on: TRANSIT - an art deco murder mystery

TRANSIT - an art deco murder mystery

jonson — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 14:35:53 -0800

T.R.A.N.S.I.T. is, by a wide margin, my favorite animated short ever produced. Set in the art deco Europe of the 1920's and (and released in 1997) it tells the story of a journey throughout several major vacation destinations of a wealthy tycoon, his young wife with wandering eyes, and a murderous turn of events. The story is told in reverse, from the final stage of the "vacation" back through each prior stop, and the artwork for each segment is painted in the style of the luggage travel sticker for that stop.

By: jonson

jonson — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 14:38:34 -0800

I've waited since before the advent of YouTube/Google Video for someone to host this film online, and in a periodic check of YT, it turns out someone finally did, five days ago. Unfortunately, this version has the excellent 1920s score removed in favor of some crap from a modern film, but beggars can't be choosers. For those interested in the film, the original production site still exists, with backstory on the murder mystery, as well as production notes from the art director.

By: TrialByMedia

TrialByMedia — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 15:00:19 -0800

Very nice.

By: Khalad

Khalad — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 15:06:10 -0800

What a beautiful short, and how remarkably poignant was the ending. I really like how low-key it is; it offsets the dramatic beginning, in a sense. John Barry's music was well-used, but I would like to hear the original score.

By: heatherbeth

heatherbeth — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 15:12:43 -0800

Wow. Great post. Thanks.

By: OrangeDrink

OrangeDrink — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 15:36:10 -0800

In trying to see how accurate the story was (the epilogue seemed a little strange) I found the outdated website for Transit, which spells out the story. Pretty sure it's fictional, for what it's worth.

By: OrangeDrink

OrangeDrink — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 15:41:12 -0800

d'oh! Sorry jonson!

By: jonson

jonson — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 15:44:43 -0800

Oh it's 100% fictional, sorry if there was any confusion on that issue. This is purely an invented story, albeit a very attractively told one.

By: rob511

rob511 — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 16:14:17 -0800

It's from '97, you say, jonson? Didn't Anne Bancroft look great?!

By: Hactar

Hactar — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 19:16:52 -0800

That was fantastic and beautiful.

By: Kwine

Kwine — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 19:19:29 -0800

Since they're far and away the best posts going, I've become convinced that posts from 'jonson' are actually the work of a crack team of Google engineers working on metafilter.google.com (pre-alpha). Once it goes live, no one will ever come back here ever again.

By: jonson

jonson — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 20:02:42 -0800

Thanks, Kwine!

By: rtha

rtha — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 20:16:47 -0800

That was completely fantastic. Thank you!

By: gummi

gummi — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 20:21:45 -0800

That was beautiful!

By: Mr.Encyclopedia

Mr.Encyclopedia — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 05:58:38 -0800

Thanks, Google team. This was awesome.