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Hollywood Spin
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Funny Bunnies
In the proud tradition of everything from the faux trailer Swing Blade to the Star Wars-Cops spoof Troops, animator Jennifer Shiman scores with online movie parodies.
Wednesday, September 1, 2004
By Richard Horgan
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Jaws is of course one those seminal movies, destined to be referenced and imitated for decades to follow. Earlier this summer, there was of a lot of talk about Spielberg’s 1975 classic in connection with the release of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival hit Open Water.
But Hollywood has recently been buzzing about another, much shorter version of Jaws, played in this case for laughs. Featuring director Bryan Singer (X2: X-Men United) as the voices of Police Chief Brody and the Mayor and his screenwriting pal Mike Dougherty chiming in as Hooper and Quint, the thirty-second online Flash animation piece is the fifth in a series of increasingly popular 2004 movie spoofs created by Los Angeles-based freelancer Jennifer Shiman.
“Mike introduced me to Bryan Singer because they work together on a number of projects,” Shiman explains via email. “Mike and writer Dan Harris (also from X2: X-Men United) had done some guest voices on [the] Alien bunnies [spoof], and Bryan loves Jaws, so they came over to do voices for Jaws bunnies.”
“It was amazing to have these guys doing voices — I was thrilled!”
It all started in February of this year, when Shiman decided to create a half-minute animated spoof of The Exorcist to add to her freelance portfolio. She envisioned an all-animal cast and after experimenting with kittens, mice and beavers, her winning sketch of a bunny with an ironic expression settled it.
On the Jaws spoof, Shiman’s boyfriend Doug McInnes contributed the voices of the rowboat bunny and an extra Hooper voice, while Shiman joins him, Singer and Dougherty to provide some of the crowd voices. After she posted her latest Flash animation homage on the Internet in mid-August, Shiman says she was getting up to 10,000 unique visitors per hour and, as a result of her growing popularity, now sells artwork and seeks online donations to help cover her ongoing web hosting costs.
“Yes, people love the Jaws bunnies,” Shiman confirms. “I was the bunny voice at the end, doing the interpretive dance. Those guys [Bryan, Mike] did such hilarious voices — they cracked me up. Mike got in touch with me after seeing Exorcist bunnies, and we’ve been in contact since then.”
From the outset, Shiman has heard from people in the United States and beyond, offering their suggestions of which movie she should target next. First came the aforementioned Exorcist bunnies in February, followed by send-ups of The Shining (May), Titanic (June), Alien (July) and now Jaws. Shiman is tight-lipped abour her next target, but all of the 30-second Bunnies Theatre entries are archived online via her production company home page, AngryAlien.com.
“One of the coolest requests I got was from folks at the McMurdo Station in Antarctica; The Thing, of course,” she recalls. “Requests have run the gamut, from other horror movies (The Ring, Halloween, Poltergeist, Alfred Hitchcock stuff, etc.) to the LOTR trilogy, Blade Runner, The Godfather.”
“Then there’s other Kubrick stuff, romantic comedies (When Harry Met Sally), ‘80s comedies (Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off); classics like Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, Citizen Kane, the list goes on and on.”
“I have a long list of contenders I’d love to do, should time and funds allow.”
Shiman’s Jaws spoof was released in the shadow of Santa Monica-based JibJab Media’s wildly popular animated song parody of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land,” featuring the unlikely vocal duo of John Kerry and George W. Bush. Among the short’s many fans is Shiman, who admires it as a perfect embodiment of the animated political parody.
A native of Highland Park, Illinois, Shiman has a rather illustrious academic background – a BA in International Political Economy from Boston University and an MA in Media Studies from University of London Institute of Education. She then studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and worked as a freelance production assistant at Calabash Animation in Chicago for a number of years throughout the late 80s and 1990s. Shiman cites Hayao Miyazaki, Chuck Jones and Tex Avery as formative influences, and is also a fan of the Flash/Internet cartoons HomeStarRunner.com, HoogerBrugge and the ‘Flyguy’ character on TrevorVanMeter.com.
“The response to the Exorcist Bunnies was so unexpected, massive, and positive, that I made the other re-enactments,” Shiman explains. “They are indeed a labor of love. And yes, I would like the bunnies to lead to other income-earning work, so I can do stuff like pay rent and eat!”
Intriguingly, humming a movie’s theme song within a thirty-second Flash animation piece could possibly lead to an email from a copyright infringement attorney. Shiman has been cautious about this and, as a veteran of the entertainment business both here and in Chicago, understands the lengths to which companies will go to protect their properties.
Meanwhile, with a number of Internet and short film spoof practitioners having used them as a springboard to Hollywood representation and initial forays into the worlds of film and TV, the 34-year-old freelacer is hopeful her Bunnies success will open some doors. For the moment, her work is being officially recognized in Canada, home of the National Film Board and many an animated short.
At the recent Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, which ran from July 8th to August 1st, The Exorcist bunnies won a silver public prize. Meanwhile, The Shining bunnies has been selected for official competition at the Ottawa International Animation Festival later this month. ABC’s Good Morning America also aired the Titanic bunnies piece in June.
Not bad for someone working out of home office with a light box and the software packages Macromedia Flash, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Streamline.
Shiman has had her share of Internet fans as well, everyone from Los Angeles-based showbiz blogger A Fly on the Wall and fantasy magazine Cinescape.com to the colorful TransBhudda.com, where one reader posted that Jaws is Shiman’s best spoof yet.
| Indeed, while there are certainly no shortage of iconic images in things like The Exorcist and Alien, Shiman’s Jaws manages to highlight the linear purity of that and many of Spielberg’s other stories. Sure enough, a blurb last week on the fan site SpielbergFilms.com gave the spoof high praise and encouraged surfers to keep their eyes peeled for a clickable easter-egg at the end of the parody.
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Ultimately, Shiman’s burgeoning success via Canadian film festivals and Steven Spielberg gatekeepers is in-kind with the growth of the Internet itself. Her AngryAlien.com site was launched in 1998 as a personal portfolio page and still contains links to some of earlier work, most notably Behind the Shiman, deux.
“It’s an autobiographical little number narrated by my very special and first cartoon character I ever made, Sase the Octopus,” she reveals. And what about Behind the Shiman part one, which was removed from the site? “It contained some dancing critters I had created for my other company before my site was getting so much exposure. So I have to swap those with different critters.
| [Every Wednesday, Richard Horgan’s FilmStew.com opinion column “Hollywood Spin” takes a look at a notable entertainment industry media, PR or marketing-driven topic. To reach the author, please email rhorgan@filmstew.com. To comment on this week’s topic, please go to our Hollywood Spin Discussion Board.] |
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