The gruesomeness of this short isn't what bothers me. In fact nothing really bothers me about "Lilium"...it's actually kind of a cool story, in my opinion. It's clearly part of the whole "creepy gothic little girl" movement in the art world; start browsing through deviantart.com or watch some Tim Burton films and you'll probably see what I mean by that. Anyway the concept has been done before.

But "Lilium" is not animated. It's more of an animatic than an animation; still shots pan slowly across the screen, broken by text for the dialogue, in imitation of old-time silent film. Meanwhile some really beautiful (and depressing) operatic music plays. But the characters don't actually move or animate in any way. I do admit the art is pretty good, although I wish the artist had refrained from using obnoxiously-thick lines when drawing some of it; seems to be a curse among the flash cartoon community.

Anyway check it out if you don't mind seeing something gory and horribly depressing. I'd give it a higher rating, but...I'm sorry...this just isn't a cartoon!