Director Keith Maitland combines eyewitness testimony,16mm file footage, and hack animation to document the afternoon of August 1, 1966, when University of Texas Tower sniper Charles Whitman shot and killed 16 people. One can almost justify the use of animation in cases where no photographic record of an actual event exists. Alas, there seems to be no shortage of footage surrounding Whitman’s killing spree. Hideous to behold, thanks to Maitland’s decision to rotoscope – the lazy person’s approach to animating, which involves tracing live action footage. The filmmakers eventually get around to connecting human faces with their cartoon counterparts. By then, the overall absurdity of the piece left me numb beyond belief. Why stop here? Why not a claymation recreation of the events of 9-11? Or Jiminy Cricket in Steven Spielberg’s When You Wish Upon Auschwitz? Nothing like trivializing true life horror as a means of dumbing things down for the children of Comic Con. (2016) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.