The “Plankton Invasion” series — now numbering two teasers, a trailer, and an episode — is a concept production from Tinkertree Studios. The trailer follows.

The series is apparently contract-bait, and from the looks of it they’ve got a good shot. Joeri Christiaen, a Belgian animator whose credits include Les Triplettes de Belleville, seems to be the ringleader.

There are some extremely high production values here; it’s made with messiah:studio, and Christiaen’s enlisted the help of experts on particles, lighting, and comp.

Sadly, it’s still boring. Maybe not as boring as some of my own work, but for the same reason: there’s not enough engaging plot progression. Whereas “Space Bunnies” lacks an adequately coherent through-line to lead the viewer along and maintain interest, the “Plankton” through-lines are so fat, slow, and predictable that the joke is over before the punch line finally hits.

At least Christiaen knows it. In this Frederator interview he admits that writing is his magical weak spot. Elsewhere he describes how, whenever he described the plots to anyone, they persisted in suggesting alternate scenarios. Kudos to him for recognizing this excellent warning sign, and for running it by somebody in the first place.

Regrettably, to mitigate these deficiencies they’ve decided that the series will henceforth “feature” script-writing by submission, aka a public joke contest, sure to result in more of the same. Go bears!

At YouTube: Teaser 1, Teaser 2, Episode 1.

(via Motionographer.)

Correction: We reported that Christiaen enlisted the help of experts on particles, lighting, and comp. This is incorrect, and was due to a mis-reading of an interview. We also incorrectly reported that the series was boring. We regret the errors.

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