What happens when ten global internet and Big Tech moguls simply want to take a relaxing stroll to tip back a pint or two of Guinness following a rough work day in Ireland? The amusing answer can be discovered in a new free-to-watch animated film titled Silicon Docks.
Written and directed by Graham Jones and animated by his wife, Kasia Wiśniewska, with live-action segments blended with resonating hand-drawn personalities, the movie’s satirical story unfolds during the final days of Trump’s presidency when a Dublin pub crawl containing a gaggle of iconic figures in the social media and technology realm gather outside their Silicon Docks offices due to the ongoing pandemic.
“What I like about this movie is that it actually takes place inside a YouTube video,” Jones tells Animation Magazine. “Our ten characters are kind of swimming around in a fishbowl! We wonder, can they see the world outside? That basic conceit allowed us to play around quite a lot.
“It felt really important to subject these internet titans to precisely the kind of reduction or simplification or puppetry that is all too common online nowadays. When we interact online, we often become sort of removed and distant and even behave quite differently in some respects. Let’s face it — a virtual interaction is slightly less human. It felt like a valid theme to explore using the incredible medium of animation, precisely because modern society is starting to feel strangely animated. Obviously, that’s what Zuckerberg wants…”
It’s a sarcastic animated gem that gently pokes fun at corporate tech billionaires and their obvious social awkwardness in a way that harkens back to the creative hilarity seen in vintage Monty Python animated skits. From Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey, to Sergey Brin and Mark Zuckerberg, none of these highly-publicized movers and shakers of the industry escape the hilarious lampooning and exposing of their fragile human foibles and petty personal rivalries.
“The appeal to me — as a traditional and digital artist — was being able to create the characters with such precision in Procreate and then invite them all to party in Moho,” adds Wiśniewska in an exclusive comment. “That combination was very satisfying!”
Silicon Docks spotlights the impressive ensemble vocal work of Grace Power, Shane Lynch, Brendan McDonald, Fiona Bawn-Thompson, Bobby Calloway, Rob Smith, José Naghmar, Gerry Cannon and Matthew McMahon.
According to Jones, Silicon Docks was created as a passion project on a shoestring budget, mostly to keep their sanity during the 2020 lockdowns and sees this endeavor as one giant social media science experiment. Clocking in at just 83-minutes long, Silicon Docks was released on October 1, 2022 and can be watched entirely free-of-charge on YouTube.
Watch it now!
