What a gorgeous work to honor a mother’s dreams! “KKUM” is a collection of stories the creator’s mother recalls to her son from her dreams.

Upon first glance, I thought the animation was made out of sugar molds, and immediately stopped to refocus! The use of Styrofoam, paper, cardboard, and light manipulation makes for a stimulating texture war—so good! The score was both playful and infectious, and felt like it’s grabbing your senses.

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I’m assuming the animation type was a bit of stop motion and a ton of editing, which resulted in an effectual three-dimensional animated film using an under-appreciated craft material.  What an incredible feat! And with a diversity in the types of styrofoam too—super cool!

The animators also used photographs during the film as an ode to cutout animation styles, which added a 2-D effect to the work, and added a nice juxtaposition and depth to the narrative material.

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The personality of the subject and his relationship with his mother were pronounced, which felt almost like I had an immediate familiarity with them.  Her premonitions and dreams guided his outlook. The narrative qualified her thoughts into beautifully designed animations and transformed them into a figurative, fantastical interpretation using different manipulations of common materials. Genius, and exquisitely executed.

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The film’s simplistic narrative and energizing animation style is distinctive, and challenges me to explore what my definition of “animation” is.