Gil Alkabetz "Rubicon" (1997)

Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon and started a civil war. So how do you get a wolf, sheep and cabbage over a river without the wolf eating the cabbage (or something like that!) Gil Alkabetz provides an implausibly extended explanation in the extremely funny Rubicon. Cartoonists (and animators) are cleverer than the average joe and Gil is a very clever man in the way he spins out the tale. There's are a few laugh aloud moments. The fin in the water, the confusion over identities, that damn cabbage. The clean graphics are a delight, each frame crisply drawn. The animator utilises his medium adroitly, his film full of optical tricks. Born in Israel in 1957, Gil moved to Stuttgart in 1995 and has taught at a high (professorial) level at a variety of animation schools. (See tomorrow's feature on Filmakademie Baden-Wuertemmberg, if I can get it written!!)

And, on a personal note, I notice I'll achieve half a million page views today. The numbers have been building up in the last few months since I updated the site. The figure is something between 1200 and 1700. If I wrote on Pepper Pig each day it would be at the one million mark in no time at all. To be serious, it helps when there are so many good films to write about. So thanks to the film makers and to you for reading this frippery.