What did you think of 5-Second Films?

Found out about this little experiment from A Good Cartoon, of all places. Ended at the end of last year.

Mmm…liked it. Sometimes. It was hit and miss, mostly. More than anything, I think this illustrates the danger of artists letting themselves be straitjacketed by the original concept. They chose that length due to an old car promo in which contestants/applicants/whichever had to submit a 5-second commercial. And yeah, it was a cute idea, but to hold it up as some kind of sacred inviolable ideal, well…bad idea, not gonna work. Sometimes you could really seem them struggling with the length; Sassy Lassies is the perfect example.

Near the end you could see them branching out a tiny bit, stringing together a series of films in succession, but it was probably too little too late.

In all, plenty of goofy fun, usually had just right amount of offensiveness and gross-out, and these seem like really good people to know, but just way too little substance for me to remember as fondly as Homestar Runner or the old Mondomedia cartoons.

Actually they did quite a few of 5SF “serials” (multiple SF clips in quick succession) - the first serial I recall was the Colonel who hypnotized Kelsey and others to make him a Thanksgiving turkey dinner (not sure if that was 2011 or later). And yes, everyone liked “Kelsey Cat”. (serial from early 2012)

For some stupid reason, the one 5SF I readily remember (without looking at the site, which seems to be on random video mode now) was “Engaging The Enemy” which features a rather so-bad-its-good pun, and of course the final Apocalyptic war between Canada and Mexico…

But anyway, in the grand tradition of the commenters on the site, I give 5SF 3 out of 5 Seconds…

Their best work was really good, but it was mixed in with a lot of crap.

The early stuff was out-and-out hilarious. When I checked back and watched the newer ones, they didn’t seem to really be that funny.