The feature-length animated musical satire, Bye-Bye Bin Laden, which pokes fun at war, TV and religious fanaticism in the U.S. and Middle East, will debut on DVD September 22 thanks to Cinequest Distribution and will be available on Netflix. The characters include bin Laden, Jenna and George Bush, and Mullah Omar and the story is narrated by the ghost of Mark Bingham, hero of Flight 93, as he helps young Josh with his term paper on the end of the human race.
The film, which took the Best Feature prize for its premiere at this year’s South Beach Animation Festival, is the first ever feature-length animated project completed by a university’in this case, as a joint effort by San Jose State University’s department of TV, Radio, Film and Theatre; School of Music and Dance; and Animation Illustration Program. The student crew animated the film in Flash, led by university professors.
‘People at the University thought we were nuts to try to make an animated feature, because animation is so insanely time-consuming and our resources were scant’but we had to try,’ comments associate professor Scott Sublett, who also served as writer-director on the project. ‘Using the Adobe Flash program was great, but still, there’s so much to do in an animated film that there were times we wondered if we’d ever really finish!’
