If I could pick the brains of those Dandy Dwarves geniuses, I'd ask how on earth they came up with the idea for Gift of the Titan Smile. The movie has an almost mythic quality, featuring a dancer (Tarren Johnson) whoperforms for a godlike smile that resides on a rocky hill. The dancer pleases the smile, and it spits out fish into a wicker basket.
It's a cool idea, but it would be nothing without superlative filmmaking, and I'm happy to report that the Dwarves have delivered yet again. The dance sequence that takes up the bulk of the film is s*xy but also suspenseful; we're always wondering if the smile might open up and chow down the girl. We know everything we need to know about the world the film takes place inby the way the girl is dressed. She looks to have walked off the set of some post-apocalyptic Hollywood movie where the survivors are living in trees. But most impressive of all is the puppet work that makes the titan smile one of the coolest effects I've ever seen in a short film. This is Broadway-quality stuff. If I didn't know better, I'd think that director Julie Taymor (The Lion King) was involved. This is another brilliantly executed masterwork by the Dandy Dwarves.
