Thursday, June 10, 2004

Standard Deviance plans on reviewing one film from Art of Speed every day for the next (...hmm...carry the one...) several days. However, as loyal readers are well aware, SD headquarters is still without high speed internet so if we miss a day or two, blame the AOL. Disclaimer: We know nothing about film. Nothing. We never even took a college class in film. You've been warned.



We started off with the film Oggo, created by Saiman Chow and Han Lee. We've seen ads featuring the white happy-looking Booble Bobbles, as we like to call them, everywhere lately so we had to find out what their deal was. The movie depicts the competition between adrenaline cells, "Oggo", in a runner's body. Apparently the Booble Bobbles (Oggos, I guess) fight each other to provide the runner with energy. There's one Oggo in particular who lags behind the other Oggos. He falls down and hurts his head, to which the other Oggos respond by pointing and laughing. Standard Deviance had to sniffle a little bit at this scene as we had a similar experience during a fourth grade kickball game. The tired Oggo gets very angry so to get even he imagines up the best motorcycle ever and races off to beat the other Oggos. Hold onto your seats because Standard Deviance is about to make a connection: The Oggo getting past his tiredness and racing off on his motorcycle is like a runner getting his second wind. Wow, we're deep.

The injured Oggo races against the other Oggos who also have interesting modes of transportation. Our favorite is the Oggo who rides on the back of a 70s roller skater. The roller skater's afro rolls off and turns into a bowling ball. The bowling ball then knocks over a pyramid of Oggos that were leading the race thus clearing the way for the 70s roller skater to take the lead. The Oggos then move onto a twisty road which, to our discerning eye, resembles the small intestine (hey, we're getting good at this thinking thing). They travel through some pinball-type course which seems to be the circulatory system of the runner. Following a final showdown between the last two Oggos the runner stops and takes a sip of water and hundreds more Oggos appear and the cycle starts all over again.

The two who created this short are the pair behind many of the psychedelic clips you have seen on VH1. As you may have gleaned from those spots, although the film may not make sense to you, it's a lot of fun. We're even feeling slightly inspired to run, if only to imagine the Oggos doing battle in our small intestine.

But here is the real question: How did those kids from the Aeolian Ride manage to steal the Oggos' outfits?