'Fish Friend' Short Film Gives A Young Girl Her Own Hungry Pet Piranha
Fish Friend is a short film about the tender relationship between a young girl and her murderous pet piranha. But this isn't (quite) a horror story. It's more like a sweet coming of age tale set in a world that is equal parts '50s Americana and subversive '90s animation thrown in. It just happens to have some blood, skulls, and a lot of teeth. Oh, and a stop-motion piranha who is as oddly endearing as he is menacing. Watch the short Fish Friend film after the break.
The short is by director Jordan Blum (American Dad, Community), producers John Swartz (Lucasfilm) and Justin Wagman (OJ: The Musical), editor Spencer Houck (Community, Franklin & Bash) and cinematographer Devin Doyle, with Nikki Hahn starring as Sally and a lovely little hunk of plasticene as her toothy friend.
Here's a behind the scenes featurette, which shows some of the layers of work that go into placing a stop-motion piranha in a glass bowl near real actors.
You never forget your first pet: this is the lesson ten-year-old Sally learns when she discovers, the hard way, that her new goldfish is actually a bloodthirsty piranha. As Sally and her fish friend forge a lasting relationship, the carnivorous pet wreaks havoc on an unsuspecting neighborhood.