Underplayed Gems

Blowhard (1978)

Blowhard poster
Directed by
Christopher Hinton, Brad Caslor
Genre
animation
Country
Canada
Runtime
10 min
Rating
6.7 of 10 from 3 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A businessman moves to a small town called Blowhard that has no electricity but is full of dragons. He comes up with a scheme to get rich by using the dragons as a power source.

satiricallightheartedwhimsicalthought-provokingplayfulquaintcleverdry

What happens

Blowhard is a Canadian animated short film, directed by Brad Caslor and Christopher Hinton for the National Film Board of Canada in 1978. A satire of capitalism, the film centres on a businessman who moves to Blowhard, a town populated by dragons but without electrical power, and formulates a plan to profit and become rich by exploiting the dragons as a power source. The film was made for the NFB's Renewable Society series. It also served as a subtle comment on Western Canadian alienation, as businessman J. B. Edwards was "from the East" and the town of Blowhard was "in the West". It was narrated by Maara Haas, and also featured Wayne Finucan as the voice of J. B. Edwards. The film received a Canadian Film Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film at the 29th Canadian Film Awards in 1978 and it won a Golden Sheaf Award for Best Animation at the Yorkton Film Festival. It was later broadcast in the United States on Cartoon Network's O Canada anthology series of NFB animated shorts. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.