An endearing animation about the struggles of love and self-expression. Hello‘s characters are created from common audio devices that are forced to communicate with what technology they have. A bumbling, young cassette player fumbles with his tape deck as he hopelessly attempts to capture the attention of the cute, digital girl next door. His earnest persistence won me over.

The animation technique integrates traditional, hand-drawn 2D characters and textures in a 3D environment through a process referred to as 2.5D. Although coarsely integrated at times, the visuals do their job of telling the story without becoming a distraction.

This festival hit is Jonathan Nix’s first short animated film. The Australian animator is currently developing the prequel—a feature-length animation titled The Missing Key. Hello was my personal favorite from the Animation Show 2 (2005), and I’m pleased to see it has now found a home online.