Planet Panic is an animated short film from Nickelodeon’s in-house animated shorts showcase program. There have been many shorts that are made in to this storyteller friendly initiative because it lets push boundaries and experiment with new content. Most of the shorts work as a standalone story but these shorts usually kick-start a vision of world and strong emotional bond between the characters. Planet Panic definitely does both of things.
The dynamic relationship between the 2 lead characters is noteworthy. The glimpse of it exists in the tiny things how the characters interact with each other. This interaction is often overlooked but Nick’s animated shorts have nailed it in almost all of their animated shorts. The aspect that characters have been existed before the story and already have a bond between them offers great acting beats for the storyteller.
Another thing that stands out in Planet Panic is how easily it plays with expectations of audience and characters themselves. Not only it acts as a hook but it offers element of surprise and source of humor. The snappier character animation style immediately defines the tone of the world and what to expect out it. The contrast between the characters is reflected in their movements too. And even in this short amount we see an arc for the character relationship. The phrase “Mission Mission Mission Yeah” has been used brilliantly to portray that arc in the end.
I can already see Planet Panic as an animated series. Hope they do make this one into an series. (I find myself saying this a lot after most of the Nick animated shorts , it tells how they good they are)
Hope you like Planet Panic. Do check out other animated shorts from Nick Animated Shorts channel.
Mahesh Pagar
ps : This article was originally written for KennyRoy.com
