Hitchhiker Part One
Bitey Castle
Creators: Adam Philips
Length: 3 minutes
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Hitchhiker is the story of a young man trekking through the countryside, trying to get a ride. Getting a ride is very difficult though. Few drivers are willing to stop, and those who are have enough opportunities and reasons to change their mind at the last moment. Based on a true story, Hitchhiker is but the first part of a two-part story that ends in an unexpected cliffhanger.

The story is slow paced and quiet. Until we reach the end, one could interpret it as a story about a young man with anything on his mind. There are scenes where we see our hitchhiker struggling to light a fire, where we see him walking on an abandoned road, hoping to get a ride. All of this is a great build up for the nerve-racking ending that concludes in the next Webisode.

The visual work is good and matches the story well. Philips borrows much from Japanese animation tricks to reduce the use of original animation. It works, and those sequences with full-frame animations are better for that. It’s a good use of pans and camera movements to simplify a complex project. About the backgrounds, they are extremely well designed and add to the ambiance.
Hervé