Not the Rise of The Planet of the Apes

Why not take a visit to Simian City where humans and apes live peacefully together?  This is a really cool piece of animation which was created by Neil McDonald for his degree project at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at the University of Dundee in Scotland.

As a general What If, it proposes an urban landscape where we and some of our closest relatives live side by side.  The result is something quite different from Rise of the Planet of the Apes (yes, we knew that movie popped in to your head the minute you started reading this!).

What really marks out this animation for me is the fluid use of color that runs beautifully and consistently through its two and a half minute duration and the pencil sketched look and feel of the animation, washed through like a watercolor.  There is an element of visual humor within the animation too which, once you lock on to it, makes you look at the rest of the film more closely.

There is a groovy sound track too, provided by Andrew 'Smally' McDonald with the help of Bobby McDonald.  Do we detect a little sibling assistance here or was it just sheer coincidence that the three first named credits at the end of the animation have the same family name?