HIGHTAIL - Short Film

Jitters, a superstitious black cat, seeks the help of a fortune teller. This only makes things worse...
A short film by 13 animation students at Sheridan College!
Production Managers: Michelle Lepine & Sora Yi (@baumbchell & @artelier_laya)
Design Supervisors: Henry He & Max Jayzeh (@he.sketch & @maxjayzeh)
Animation Supervisors: Dennis Kim, Alia Metke & Sieun Lee (@denniskim.dk , @aliarose.art & @sieunleeart)
Layout Supervisors: Alex Cote & Allyssa Clemente (@hagunatoons & @ysa.clemtea)
Story Supervisors: Delaram Majdzadeh & Larrisa Rozsi-Sudek (@deloomo & @larislop)
Sound Supervisor: Jill Pinkney (@caterjiller)
Compositing Supervisor: Sean McAllister (@seanatar)
Original Score: William "Dim Widdy" Collins (@Dim_Widdy)

[@_Iscream]

Death isn’t actually a bad card in tarot. It basically means change- bad AND good. Since the cat’s past was bad, it meant a change for the better.

[@shoelicker]

13

[@stixzyswag]

wisdom

[@mikekazz5353]

The same can't be said for the happy squirrel card.

[@parkerhynson3581]

I think that's the point. Most members of the audience, and the cat himself, assume death means a fatal outcome, but in reality it means a change. Foreshadowing the end of the film when the bird wasn't a harbinger, but a new friend. In the end, his fortune came true, just not the fortune most were expecting.

[@DanDraws.]

I was actually about to clarify this exact point, also the ten of swords isn't a bad card either.

[@stevieratstacks]

5 seconds in and it’s already the best thing I’ve seen this year

[@Kaslidaughterofchaos]

Oof

[@strawberryseal1851]

that pfp is amazing

[@bubbledafoxy]

Same

[@strawberryseal1851]

@Nutty domination shut up. They're both amazing

[@Build10010]

Is jitters female?

[@alexjonathanwhite606]

This is an FANTASTIC SHORT, it’s honestly incredible, the way the owls dress moved, the transitions were on point, the fact the characters was a black cat, the gorgeous art style, the constant number 13 everywhere and the great character designs, truly a sight to behold. I loved everything about this and it’s clear a lot of effort and time went into this, and I like the twist at the end, very clever. Keep up the brilliant work

[@MrGreen-fi5sg]

*Character

[@micaloli]

what twist?

[@BovineDesigns]

I love that made the set up that he lost his wallet at the beginning but made it subtle enough that I didn't realize the twist at the end! This is also absolutely beautiful! You're use of squash and stretch are fantastic not to mention the motion smears add so much to the speed. I hope to make something as good as this someday!

[@zakaryloreto6526]

The character that epitomes bad luck, got lucky

[@youtubeuserdan4017]

Damn you beat me to it.

[@Fryguystudios]

In some cultures black cats are actually considered lucky.

[@Sem-ifinalist]

Man this short is really charming and some of these shots are super smooth. Good stuff

[@timsplosion]

This is great! Very funny, very charming, the main character - heck, pretty much every character - was adorable, and that stress of feeling like everything you do to avoid your problem just makes everything worse is super relatable. We need more videos and shorts like this on KZbin.

[@OatsCorn117]

THIS IS PHENOMENAL!!!!! Big congrats to absolutely everyone working on this! The Soundtrack?? Sublime!!! The Colors??? Delightful! The Concept??? Wholey unique and touching! Everyone working on this project worked their asses off and it shows, congratulations to you all! :)!

[@agracata1894]

Wow! The film is incredible! I knew from the trailer that there was greatness to come. And here it is! I like how Jitters got the Death card. Despite its' name, it's actually a positive card (in a neutral reading)! It promises reinvention and starting anew. And, just as you know it, Jitters DID start anew - he ripped that card, as he got tired with all that superstition/fortune stuff, and actually invited that raven to a cup of coffee! Now that's improvement. I'm happy for our Jitters boy! (: As for the animation... it was stunning! The colors, the smoothness, the lightning, the backgrounds and the beautiful work of the voice actors work really well together! Comedy bits are a try-hard, but I liked the creativity with the salty pretzel cart - I don't think I have seen a bit with that cart before, so props for that! Overall, this is a genuinely good short film! I think you've got Nine of Pentacles and the Wheel of Fortune! ;)

[@snailking642]

This is amazing, giving the irony that the main character is a black cat, and does many things in the animation that is considered bad luck, such as walking under a ladder, breaking a window, and he throws salt over his shoulder (which is usually to ward off bad luck). This is very detailed with how short it is!

[@n-extrafries-surprise]

This looks like a real bad day, just to add more for the cat kid's misfortune... Black Cats are also bad luck. Man

[@ARandomCanadian]

you can see Jitters drop the wallet, cool attention to detail

[@kyrab7914]

I like the crow character. Like the cat is obviously very scared and bad things do happen to them... But it's mostly from the silly superstitions they follow, which aren't working. The crow may be the first person in a long time to be like "yo you got some issues that need working on". And having coffee together won't fix that, the cat needs like professional help at this level tbh. But it's a good first step.

[@Al-fi2ni]

Night in The Woods anyone?

[@timsplosion]

Yeh, I definitely got that vibe, both visually and musically. Still holds it's own regardless though!

[@Scriblyn]

A lot of artists don't tend to appreciate their original works being compared to something else because it makes them feel unoriginal.

[@logicallegends1663]

Music reminded me of Banjo-Kazooie and I felt like a kid watching cartoons after school. It was great.

[@joaovitorfarinabraga690]

Love how this character has a phobia of bad lucky and they thems are a black cat

[@Lunadimensio]

the kitten looks like Mae Borowski of Night in the Woods

[@bojack1601]

he's corporeal.... .. . .... .. . delectable

[@owl2205]

I was really rooting for him until 3:56 Why would he litter

[@aeilr_chill3289]

I think it’s a she

[@BaumbChell]

@@aeilr_chill3289 Jitters is a guy :)

[@aeilr_chill3289]

@@BaumbChell wow didn’t know

[@juggalozz]

I love the take in superstitions he's a black cat, the ladder, the salt, the mirrors, ect.

[@theinquisitionsparrot6749]

We got a Hazbin jr bois

[@Hel7100]

Funny, and I love the way it was animated. Especially the owl's shutter eyes. Though it seems she was a bad fortune teller. You seem to have studied Tarot, since the combination of Death, the Tower and Ten of Swords hints the cat's life is changing completely. It's refreshing for me, because most writers/scripters who use tarot cards on tv, books or movies takes them literally for their face value. (I saw once a Western where the Hanging Man's card predicted the hero's life would change, dang it!)

[@HenryHe]

This is my favourite horror anime of 2021

[@lolnino8511]

I love the artstyle of this film so much, the art and animation is amazing, nice job :) was also really poetic how the cat had bad luck the entire film and at the very end, the cat avoided death simply out of pure luck

[@LilyAvarA]

I knew this deserved more attention, insanely underrated

[@cheesecake906]

I like how they put everything unlucky, like under the ladder, breaking a mirror and he is even a black cat

[@EliasTressa]

2:59 that’s 42 years of bad luck

[@joaovitorfarinabraga690]

for a second i though it was a night in the woods fananimation, still great work

[@youarenowawarepodcast8896]

I watched your Jerma stuff a while back. It appeared in my recommended so I decided to watch it again, and then I decided to click the rest of your content and WOW this video and others are amazing!!

[@GuukanKitsune]

Past: The Tower: misfortune, calamity, trouble. Present: The Ten of Swords: Conflict. Arguments, fighting, trouble in a fairly big way (ten) Future: Death: Change, great change, facilitated by what's going on in the present. All in all, not a bad trio. His past is full of misfortune and calamity, and he will presently experience conflict (not having money to pay for the reading), but a change in his fortune is coming and things will improve, and in a big way. That set is actually a pretty optimistic and reassuring one! Also, love the fact that his new friend is a raven. Ravens are in many places symbols of death, and it's a nice touch that his Death Card change was facilitated by a raven entering his life.

[@knightbardwell4617]

I do know the card meanings! *”Cough amateur?”* The Tower : destruction and enlightenment. The towers it hit by lightning like collapse ideal, Dreams. Think of your world is falling apart , it better to surrender to it. So in the future, you can build better and more foundation Tower and bigger then original tower. Ten of swords : ending. Having this card upright is Ruin, Sound Scary does not lead to death or destruction. But to broken bonds of friendships, job loss, falling business, Ten of swords Applies to group of people rather then individuals. Death : transformation and change. Death brings ending and beginnings, Death’s impact is sudden And is a stocking. You have little Control over external events when Death looms. I not professional of Tarot Cards, But People’s who Made this Video Did there Researched accurate. I love Video w/ Owl.

[@Chickenanndo]

I love all the bad-luck signs, our main protagonist is a black cat, he went under a ladder, and he breaks several mirrors Might’ve missed a couple

[@quiet2697]

Avoided stepping on a crack, was throwing salt over his shoulder, it was friday the 13th

[@DuskstarShine]

The main character's design looks like Mae Borowski, and i cant unsee it xd Never the less, looks great! :D

[@jeluenhayo2410]

Beautiful work, music, scenery, everything's in place. Although I strongly believe that words are unnecessary in this short - yes, the actors did a good job (and their voices are suiting), but all the emotions and ideas are already shown by the vivid animation and there is simply no need to include phrases here in my humble opinion.

[@brohighvlady3809]

The black and green contrast make me remember my first phone, a Nokia

[@jaelynnotero3008]

Ah this was so cool! So many good colors and fluid animation! Also the music was spot on!

[@Chickenanndo]

I agree, that jazz is one hell of a banger

[@dimwiddy9808]

@@Chickenanndo Thank you, both of you (composer here)

[@siga.7578]

Great short! The animation here is so beautiful and I love the designs of these characters!

[@Hugelag]

Very nice! It's drawn very good and the cat is cute.

[@beachboye2193]

that crystal ball transition went crazy

[@LaphyTaphyCreation]

A black cat that believes in bad luck, Ironic, very creative, very nice 😌

[@catballlemon]

So underrated, this deserved millions of views! Very great 👏👏👏👏

[@deeranfoxworthy6069]

That was so sweet and cute! Well done everyone!

[@Kallastar.]

Hehe what can i say, i proud of my job

[@justpainter5990]

Какая милая рисовка..очень жаль,что здесь так мало просмотров

[@MasterTopHat]

I cant get over how cute they look with there big eyes the big eye things go work

[@jax3636]

I loved the movement of the fortune teller owl

[@slimeinabox]

People get paid to make trash. And here you are, producing pure gold for free. Thank you.

[@kellenshea9110]

Wow! Incredible!

[@sachinraghavan4556]

This poor cat has the crappiest luck.

[@Ender-Eye2000]

I already love this year for indie animation. Sad for the “big boys”, good for the “little guys.” See what I did there? Probably not. Big boys are the bigger companies. And the little guys are these indie creators.

[@francesfarmer3874]

the instagram account from Alex Cote is not hagunanovelty, its @hagunatoons

[@coffeekat-]

this is so creative and cool! I love all the characters sm :0

[@gnardawgyt]

This is movie quality, really great work! Shame it has so few views. Really deserves a lot more

[@KittyKatty999]

I was thinking two things the entire time: -Death ISN'T a bad card. It represents Change, moving on from what the current status quote is. It can be a bad change, OR a good change. -THE ARCANA IS THE MEANS BY WHICH ALL IS REVEALED. THE ARCANA IS THE MEANS BY WHICH ALL IS REVEALED. THE ARCANA-

[@georgeadusei1003]

Forgive me... Please, forgive me... SERIOUSLY, forgive me... I'm about to HIGHTAIL it outta here!!!

[@StuCupid]

It's been great seeing the progress over on twitter and discord, I'm glad to see it's finally finished and it's all worth the wait!

[@nessiejoe]

Jitters my beloved

[@juliennelee1963]

WE LOVE JITTERS!!!!!!!!!!!

[@Bepetoni]

"Jitters", omgggg???💗💗

[@nastyfox5281]

It deserves a like. IT FUCKING DESERVES

[@ValorousFogey]

This is fantastic. And ridiculously underviewed.

[@ayden839]

Fav vid of 2021 already

[@Koshana]

Wow! This is amazing!

[@jae6xr]

Black Cat is just so nice to be bad luck :(💗

[@tannerboyle6540]

This is great! The animation is so full of character

[@akiame72]

2:02 Just listen to this again I couldn't stop thinking how familiar this sounded

[@row7]

Honestly amazing animation, the angles, and the colors are so perfect it boggles my mind. The cat is so cute, please use it in your next animations! :)

[@Mopki3]

Most people replaying the last bit being like "how do you get..."

[@impabito3933]

Holy guacamole this is so good

[@alexramey2062]

Excellent. A visual feast for the eyes.

[@planetaryaiden106]

This film has like some of the best little details that I’ve seen i a while like the fact that all signs of bad luck has been shown and given that the main character is a black cat

[@Fionacle]

The animation and character design is so cute!! I love the concept and everything so much! Great color palette and style and it was a nice choice to make the main character mute, whether for a physical or mental reason. I hope they have a nice time with the bird and the pig can recover from losing his precious salt (also I particularly liked the pig’s voice acting for whatever reason) Overall, I’m not sure what it means coming from someone who will be 15 in a month, but this was amazing!

[@igo1495]

wow, I'm usually super late to seeing cool animations. I love the art style and how expressive the main character is. Very good stuff!

[@Explodiatr]

Is adorble n heckin byootiful. I luv

[@TruthfulTravesty]

Night in the Woods 2 is lookin' great!

[@DeluDreamer]

Oh! This was adorable! Thank you for making this!

[@HenryHe]

H-h-hE'S ALIVE

[@2tunkl2flunkl]

this is amazing! can’t wait for this to blow up!

[@judithwalker3600]

Great! Fun!

[@mangoblade3877]

Jitters looks like mae from night in the woods

[@haifaabdul8870]

Such a great short film. Love the animation and the story. Great work guys!

[@ooeygooeygoodra3068]

Appealing art style? Check. Smooth and eye catching animation? Checkers. An under appreciated artist that youtube is no doubt going to shadow over and prevent more people from seeing their work? We got bingo baby.

[@wolfjedisamuel]

Fortune Teller: The cards will tell me your fate... Cards: Jason Voorhees is coming.

[@chill6455]

This was really nice holy crap, I loved the animation

[@FoxBlocksHere]

This is amazing! Great job to everyone involved! Hope this gets lots more views!

[@phantasmagoriacat7671]

I love it! It's so beautiful! I need more cartoons about cats.

[@TotallyOwnd]

2:32 omg the music is so good, thank you Dim Widdy

[@dimwiddy9808]

Thank you for saying so!

[@AnimalProjec]

i can imagine this being a animated series

[@EvanNakagawa]

Well done! Such a fun watch!

[@RoninCatholic]

Fortune telling is so vague that basically any fortune you get is going to be true. An easily falsified fortune is bad for business, after all. "Death just means change" when change is already guaranteed, for example.

[@SweetBeenS1405]

if this were a tv show, i'd watch it in a heartbeat

[@Derbruno_9]

I think this video deserves more

[@micalyptus]

I’ve been following the team’s posts online behind scenes and didn’t realize it was available for us to watch!!!! This is so awesome I LOVE the mirror shop XD 💖💖💖 excellent work!!

[@lukakostallas4576]

Yoooo this was so good!! I really hope it gets more views cause the effort is palpable!!

[@Kibbo03]

This is so cute. I love it! ❤️

[@fusion325]

I've always enjoyed your work but this one really hit the 👌

[@trixielulam00n89]

The expressions and fluid movements are AMAZING !! THIS WAS GREAT KEEP IT UP

[@sfglim5341]

This is so wonderful! Should definitely get more attention I love this

[@Unknown-sg4tv]

How To Make Bad 999 Trillion Per Cent Extremely Pure Good idea 1. Invent time machine. 2. Travel to 22nd century. 3. Invent a machine that can change probability to make probability certain that Bad is 999 Trillion per cent Extremely Pure Good idea Forever.

[@jebjab4261]

Idk why it reminds me of Night in the Woods, but it does and that is a REALLY good thing coming from me.

[@layawake9507]

Its so smooth its beautiful 😩