SNAPSHOT
A tennis ball reflects on aging, self-improvement, hustle culture, and his own impending mortality. But in a cute way. Tennis Ball on His Day Off is written and directed by animation filmmaker / 3D artist Julian Glander … This was commissioned by and produced by Cody Dematteis at [Adult Swim] for Off the Air. It first premiered at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival earlier this year, and also screened at the Glas Animation Festival, Flatpack Festival, Rooftop Films Summer Series, Sydney Underground Film Fest. (courtesy First Showing)
If you were looking for a short film to perfectly encapture what the start of the new year feels like, then Tennis Ball on His Day Off is definitely worth your time.
An existentially-rich musing on the shortness of time and whether we are doing enough with what we have allotted to us, Tennis Ball on His Day Off is a cute idea that comes loaded with a huge amount of very insightful emotional heft, the kind that might make you rethink why it is you do what you do.
Think that’s a lot for a film that runs under three minutes?
Well, writer-director Julian Glander gets the balance just right between rumination and playfulness, investing this most delightful of short films with heart and brains and a knowing sense that life rarely gives us the breaks we want but that that doesn’t mean we can ask some powerful “what ifs” anyway.