There's something sinister going on in the library of the Alchemic
Council that night, as a few not quite benevolent magicians burn certain
books at the request of the Time Shadow (Neil Green), a malevolent being
captured in the mirrors of the Council but not entirely without powers in
the real world ... all but the power to exit his mirror world. The key for
this would be to burn the book of Unseen Memories, but good magician
Acheron (Daniel Wyse) has grown wise to this and unbeknowest to anyone
steels exactly that book - and while he's ultimately overcome and killed
by the Shadow Beast, his Cat Familiar Clovis (Morgan Muscat) manages to
escape and deliver the book to Acheron's favourite student Lydia (Sandra
DaCosta) - even if it costs his own life ... much to the dismay of Lydia's
Cat Familiar Callista (Caley Le Grand), who has been Clovis's lover for
years. All Callista wants to do is to return the book to the Council and
let them serve justice, but she's intercepted by a magician (Paul
Nicholls) she thought on her side, who tries to trick her into giving up
the book for his own sake - not realizing that he's only a pawn in the
Time Shadow's plot himself though ... And suddenly Lydia finds herself
fighting a battle she knows little about, traveling through worlds she has
never even dreamed would exist, and facing odds way above her experience
or capabilities - but she knows if she loses, it would mean the end of the
world as she knows it ... Cold Dark Mirror is a feature
length CGI animation movie created, written, designed, animated,
everything, by one-man-animation band David T. Krupicz - and it's a
remarkable movie. That said, it's not perfect, the animation is not always
as smooth or convincing as can be, the character designs are a bit on the
dull side ... but while it's not perfect it's truly remarkable, and not
only because one guy pretty much did it all on his own, but because apart
from a few technical shortcomings, the movie is just breathtaking. It
creates new (yet totally "graspable") worlds with the greatest
of ease, is full of surreal details, is heavy on atmosphere, cinematic in
approach, and dares to tell a highly original story - to put it another
way, this is a really good piece of fantasy cinema. Definitely
recommended! Cold Dark Mirror is now available via
Vimeo: Standard version at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/35230
3D
stereoscopic bundle at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/35251
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