TRANSIT - an art deco murder mystery

September 2, 2007 2:35 PM

T.R.A.N.S.I.T. is, by a wide margin, my favorite animated short ever produced. Set in the art deco Europe of the 1920's and (and released in 1997) it tells the story of a journey throughout several major vacation destinations of a wealthy tycoon, his young wife with wandering eyes, and a murderous turn of events. The story is told in reverse, from the final stage of the "vacation" back through each prior stop, and the artwork for each segment is painted in the style of the luggage travel sticker for that stop.
posted by jonson (14 comments total)

I've waited since before the advent of YouTube/Google Video for someone to host this film online, and in a periodic check of YT, it turns out someone finally did, five days ago. Unfortunately, this version has the excellent 1920s score removed in favor of some crap from a modern film, but beggars can't be choosers. For those interested in the film, the original production site still exists, with backstory on the murder mystery, as well as production notes from the art director.
posted by jonson at 2:38 PM on September 2, 2007 [2 favorites]

Very nice.
posted by TrialByMedia at 3:00 PM on September 2, 2007

What a beautiful short, and how remarkably poignant was the ending. I really like how low-key it is; it offsets the dramatic beginning, in a sense. John Barry's music was well-used, but I would like to hear the original score.
posted by Khalad at 3:06 PM on September 2, 2007

Wow. Great post. Thanks.
posted by heatherbeth at 3:12 PM on September 2, 2007

In trying to see how accurate the story was (the epilogue seemed a little strange) I found the outdated website for Transit, which spells out the story. Pretty sure it's fictional, for what it's worth.
posted by OrangeDrink at 3:36 PM on September 2, 2007

d'oh! Sorry jonson!
posted by OrangeDrink at 3:41 PM on September 2, 2007

Oh it's 100% fictional, sorry if there was any confusion on that issue. This is purely an invented story, albeit a very attractively told one.
posted by jonson at 3:44 PM on September 2, 2007 [2 favorites]

It's from '97, you say, jonson? Didn't Anne Bancroft look great?!
posted by rob511 at 4:14 PM on September 2, 2007

That was fantastic and beautiful.
posted by Hactar at 7:16 PM on September 2, 2007

Since they're far and away the best posts going, I've become convinced that posts from 'jonson' are actually the work of a crack team of Google engineers working on metafilter.google.com (pre-alpha). Once it goes live, no one will ever come back here ever again.
posted by Kwine at 7:19 PM on September 2, 2007

Thanks, Kwine!
posted by jonson at 8:02 PM on September 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

That was completely fantastic. Thank you!
posted by rtha at 8:16 PM on September 2, 2007

That was beautiful!
posted by gummi at 8:21 PM on September 2, 2007

Thanks, Google team. This was awesome.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 5:58 AM on September 3, 2007