Intergalactic Who's Who: The Vegetation of Zig 5


Calgary 2009, 1:30 min, Dir: Kevin D.A. Kurytnik & Carol Beecher

This animated short parodying those old Hinterland Who’s Who commercials, gives us a rundown of the peculiar varieties of vegetation that cower on the distant planet of Zig 5. On that harsh world, where a lifespan can last mere minutes and vicious predators are everywhere, plants have evolved legs that enable them to take flight in order to survive. What makes this idea more than just amusing is that, from an ecological perspective, plants here on earth might be better off if they had legs too. Beecher and Kurytnik have made a number of Intergalactic Who’s Who vignettes about the flora and fauna of Zig 5; for fans of Prairie Tales 10, the fearsome Praepredatorprae featured in the episode from that year’s anthology makes an appearance here, setting off a stampede of terrorized vegetables.

Carol Beecher and Kevin Kurytnik are animators located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Carol is a native Calgarian, while Kevin was born in Norquay, Saskatchewan. Graduates of the Alberta College of Art and Design in 1987 they are self-taught filmmakers who describe themselves as “rabid fans and students of all film genres” and cite influences from Norman MacLaren to Looney Tunes. They are also influenced by their own “interests and experiences as visual artists, story tellers, animators, filmmakers”. Kevin got his major in Visual Communications and Carol in Ceramic Sculpture. Kevin is the Digital Media and Animation instructor at the Alberta College of Art and Design. Their animation studio is called Fifteen Pound Pink Productions, because that’s how much their cat weighed.