Reflective Encounters

“Migrants is an interesting example of digital animation’s abilities to imitate the textures of stop-motion puppets. The film's animal characters seem to be composed of knitted materials, down to the frayed edges of their woollen fibres. It’s an impressive achievement which recalls a variety of stop-motion filmmakers – Ülo Pikkov’s Body Memory (2013) has a similar attention to the details of its woven characters. More similar in tone would be Co Hoedeman’s The Garden of Écos (1997), with a similar concern for natural environments. Migrants’ animated bears are given a sense of believability thanks to the physicality of their surroundings. A particular highlight is the ocean foam which resembles Styrofoam packaging (an allusion to ecologically harmful materials).

Praise should also be given to the plausibly animal-like movements of the digital performances. Care has been given to studying the mannerisms of the bears’ real-life counterparts. For this reason, the emotions expressed by the bears as they’re met with hostility is never too humanistic. Instead, their sense of sorrow and fear is played with subtlety, condensing the power of the performance to their bodies instead of their faces.”

— Chris Childs