TRAILER: “Buckets City”

TRAILER: “Buckets City”

June 12th, 2023

Jerry Beck

Buckets City, a quirky, imaginative animated short film by Writer/Director Dave Quion about two best friends who finally get sweet revenge on the streetball rivals of their youth, is an official selection at this year’s Dances With Films (DWF) Festival, June 22-July 2, 2023 at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood. Take a look:

Done almost entirely by one person, the look of the short is a unique blend of elements mixing a pencil sketch style with collage images; Quion says he was trying to evoke the original WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP and the charming, neighborhood daily life of the ANIMAL CROSSING games. The film is set sometime in the 1990s so the clothes are fluorescent, the parachute pants are baggy, and it takes place in a world where everyone from grandmas to mailmen play street basketball.

Quion, a graduate of the California Institute of the Arts with a degree in Character Animation, has had his work honored at MTV’s Best Student Film on Campus, Spike and Mike’s Animation Festival, the San Diego Asian Film Festival, CAAMFest, and Best Student Film at Melbourne International Animation Festival.

Quion says the film is a reflection of two sides of himself, and is derived from another lifelong love of his: playing basketball in the street. “The two main characters are based on two sides of me,” he admits. “Sometimes, like Kid, I get so nervous for a big moment that it messes me up when I do it; but if I just go with the flow like Duckhammer, and try to be present and enjoy it, I often do better.”

The production was truly a labor of love and family ties. Composer and Sound Effects Kyle Blanton-Ross, a classmate of Quion’s, composed music that evokes 90s hip hop; Dave’s brother Warren Quion provided computer graphics modeling and did some coloring for the film.

Kid Squirl (Quion) lives in an old house overlooking a city on top of a skyscraper. His best friend Duckhammer (Kyle Blanton-Ross) is a latchkey kid who crashes on Kid’s sofa every night. Rocky-esque underdogs, the two always get beat down by varsity jocks and neighborhood hustlers like Rhinokill (Desnar Pandiangan) and Geksniper (Blanton-Ross). That the defeat always happens in the presence of Kid’s childhood crush Claire (Jana Joy Quion) is a major source of his PTSD. When Duckhammer finally learns how to dunk, Kid sees a chance they can redeem themselves and win rights to the court.

Buckets City has been in many festivals this year including the Palm Springs Animation Festival and Expo, Kids First! Film Festival, the Hong Kong Kids International Film Festival, the Lift-Off Global Network Sessions and the ASIAN Feedback Film Festival.

The film will be shown on Sunday, June 25 at 4:15pm as part of the KIDZ BY PROS: GRP 2 at the TCL Theatres in Hollywood, Tickets are available for purchase on the Dances With Films website at danceswithfilms.ticketspice.com/dwf26-kidz-by-pros-grp-2.

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Jerry Beck

Writer, cartoon producer and author of more than 15 books on animation history. A former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney; currently on the faculty at both CalArts in Valencia and Woodbury University in Burbank, California.