– Spoiler Review –
Last and totally not least, as in fact it’s one of my top 3 for Star Wars: Visions Vol. 2, is “Aau’s Song” by Triggerfish Animation Studios. It’s toy-like design, whimsical world, and musically driven ideas lead to a final episode containing everything that’s made this season even more special than the first.
The music-focused short in Visions Vol. 1 wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, but the way “Aau’s Song” uses song and voices is not only more up my alley, but has within it a great theme and great potential. Aau and her father, Abat, live on Korba, a planet littered with kyber crystals throughout its mountains, though they were corrupted by Sith a long time again and glitter red. Abat (Tumisho Masha) mines the kyber, alongside others in the village, to give to the Jedi to purify, while Aau keeps hearing the call of the kyber for her to sing in tune with it, but her father cautions her against it. Unsure of herself and her voice, being told to suppress it, she can’t help but be curious, so when the Jedi Kratu (Cynthia Erivo) comes to visit and the kyber he gives her calls to Aau again, she starts to sing. Abat startles her when he realizes what’s happening and then we see why he tells her not to sing, as the kyber sizzled in his grip, almost injuring him. Kratu isn’t so sure what she’s doing is bad, leaving the father-daughter pair as she does business elsewhere in town, but not before she voices a sly goodbye with a prompt for Aau to explore the calling from the kyber, something she’s realized the young Korban has inside. Unable to ignore the call and Kratu’s words lingering, Aau heads off into the mountains where her father mines, finding a secret entrance and beginning to sing to the kyber, though her father finds her and pulls her out, leading to a catastrophic event which almost ends in their deaths. Thankfully Kratu is there to help save them, but Aau decides to fully embrace her abilities and sings, purifying the kyber across the land, and bringing the mountains peace. Kratu wants Aau to join her in the stars, to be a Jedi, and the young Korban decides to leave, her father proud of her and her choice.
As I mentioned before, the musical aspect to this was so intriguing, but so too is the father and daughter relationship, and how they sort of go hand-in-hand. Aau’s voice being a catalyst for the kyber’s transformation, to heal them, is such a different way to have someone connect with the Force than we’ve seen before. Music and singing have long been important to cultures throughout our world’s short but bright history, used in healing chants, rites of passage, community building, and all other sorts of functions beyond the pure entertainment it can provide with our favorite bands or soundtracks, and the team at Triggerfish, in the Filmmaker’s Focus behind-the-scenes video, talks about its importance to South African ways as well. Co-director Nadia Darries speaks to how music and song is the way her people connect to one another, the land, and even spirits in another realm, so it’s fitting then Aau connects with the Force, something from another realm, via her voice. To convey Aau’s abilities, they had two voice actors for the part, Mpilo Jantjie for her dialogue, which is sparse but impactful when it hits, and Dineo Du Toit provided her singing voice, while the kyber’s tune and Aau singing with it comes from a combination of things, including a local youth choir they hired, recorded in a cathedral to get the sort of ethereal, echo-y quality which makes it sounds so otherworldly in the short. The sound design and choices with the two voices really drive a special, unique feel to the short, showcasing how truly unique Aau’s ability is, while giving it a natural, symbiotic tone to the nature around her.
Because Aau’s voice sounds so pleasant, calming, it’s so stark and surprising a father as obviously caring as Abat would want to stop her from using it. Beyond the instance we see with it burning his glove, there’s no clear indicator of why he’d be against her using her voice other than maybe some unknown past incident either with Aau or some other Korban who sang before, but it’s through his inability to let her go that her voice causes issues. In holding her back, his fear becomes hers, and she’s afraid to embrace her voice at first, but Kratu’s advice gives her hope, and if there was ever a franchise theme, hope is certainly a core one, and fear is certainly something which leads to darker paths, hence why the kyber reacts poorly when she hesitates, fear reacting to fear. When he lets her go, a physical gesture at first during the moment when Kratu holds back the rockfall from killing the three of them, she embraces herself and her hope, letting out her voice and calming the world as she heals the kyber. He lets her go figuratively afterwards, as she decides to accept Kratu’s offer to join her amongst the stars. Never once did it feel like Abat was ashamed of her or afraid of her, only that he couldn’t let her go, he cares for her that much, and it was refreshing this was simply a story of parent learning to let their child grow up and be themself, while for Aau it’s her coming to trust in herself and her gifts, still with support and love from her parent.
I adore the animation for “Aau’s Song,” from the gorgeous, picturesque landscapes I just wanted to stay and stare at, the cute little town where everyone congregates outside the mining operations, to the felt-like material the characters are made from tempting viewers to reach out into the world before them. Co-directors Nadia Darries and Daniel Clarke wanted the world to be something viewers would want to reach out and touch and they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Two actual felt figures were made of Aau and Abat and displayed in Triggerfish’s headquarters (a barn on a working farm!) for inspiration and I would’ve thought they created and used these puppets in a stop-motion way for “Aau’s Song” due to fidelity of the felt animation used for all characters, but I would’ve been wrong, making Triggerfish Studio’s work even more impressive. There’s a sort of gentle, kind, and wonder-filled tone to the short, due seemingly to the felt material designs but also the work of composer Markus Wormstorm (you can listen to the score on Spotify), who fills much of the musical landscape with a child-like exuberance and a peaceful, uplifting tone, while he’s integral in the unique sound of the kybers, and his portion of the Filmmaker’s Focus is fascinating as well. The landscapes and general animation for the world around Aau, Abat, and Kratu feels otherworldly, with the tall, rocky spires and colorful, natural feel to the environments, and like I said earlier, I’d eagerly love to have many of these vistas as something to stare at for hours they are so beautiful (I might have one of these screenshots as my desktop background next). The fact they used their surroundings in Cape Town to give the planet of Korba its arresting views and style makes me want to visit. The visual of the kyber when Aau sings was delightful as well, the way the world melts away and we see the distant pinpricks of light of all the kyber, reminded me of a starfield, a subtle way of saying the Force connects all things, reaching across time and space.
Here are a few other things:
- I mentioned the Filmmaker’s Focus earlier and, as always, I highly suggest checking it out. I loved the little glimpses of Nadia Darries playing out scenes at her home that she and the animators could reference later at the studio. It reminds me of footage of seen recently of old Disney animated films, where they used real people for reference, something I didn’t know until recently thanks to my wife’s love of the films.
- Not only is this in my Top Three for Vol. 2 (the other two being “The Bandits of Golak” and “The Spy Dancer”), though they were all very good, I’d put “Aau’s Song” in my Top Five from both Visions volumes!
- There’s a lovely look at Triggerfish and its history by OkayAfrica, while the official SW blog has a interview with the co-directors.
“Aau’s Song” by Triggerfish is an excellent way to sum up what has made Star Wars: Visions Vol. 2 such a memorable new step for the series.
+ Father-daughter relationship, while old news for Star Wars, very nurturing here
+ Aau’s ability and the way the team at Triggerfish built a sonic and animation palette for it
+ The power of letting go
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.
STAR WARS VISIONS REVIEWS
Vol. 2: “Sith” | “Screecher’s Reach” | “In the Stars” | “I Am Your Mother” | “Journey to the Dark Head” | “The Spy Dancer” | “The Bandits of Golak” | “The Pit”
Vol. 1: “The Duel” | “Tatooine Rhapsody” | “The Twins” | “The Village Bride” | “The Ninth Jedi” | “TO-B1” | “The Elder” | “Lop & Ochō” | “Akakiri”
Related Material: Art of Star Wars: Visions Vol. 1 (book) | Star Wars: Visions #1 (comic) | Ronin: A Visions Novel (novel)