Hi
I liked the film quality from the technical aspect… 
what do you think of the story?
The old guy in the hut should have given Sintel a talking-to rather than a fancy spear.
The spear was already hers when he found her.
I think that the story did well given the time. In this day and age where movies are being pushed ever longer to pack more in-depth storys and characters in, 13ish minutes is very little time to work with when introducing a whole new world to the audience. I think it made very effective use of cliches to cover where it needed, and provided a unique twist to them with the fairly Shakespearean tragic ending.
and that is about what they said they were after at the very beginning. other then the surprise tragedy.
nuf said, if I really got started talking I wouldn’t go to bed tonight. yay blender team!
Just doing some reading while the movie downloads and you’ve just spoiled the ending for me, nice one!
(possibly my own fault for reading this thread mind you). 
Everything was quite well done. I just wish that there was more, but that’s obviously just a limitation of the conditions of the budget (time and money) they were working in.
I didn’t really understand the end though. Maybe I’m just simple minded, but had she been searching for years? So she was actually quite old, but she felt young, so her appearance when she entered the cave was kind of a self image thing?
So she was actually quite old, but she felt young, so her appearance when she entered the cave was kind of a self image thing?
Yep that’s right, that’s part of the unexpected twist Atemporalskill talked about, I really liked it but the only thing that felt a bit rushed was that the new dragon went looking for Sintel at the end as a “somewhat happier sad end”, or hope like ending, but taking acount the time its okay.
Yeh technically it was a great movie and was great to look at, some really amazing scenes, however I was left a bit disappointed by the story, it wasnt expected at all and the twist was quite sad.
Its like… I want to share this achievement with friends/family, show them what Blender can really do, but at the same time I would sadden them in doing so, which is off-putting, counter productive… etc
Im sure it is very symbolic (I havent 100% worked it all out yet, these things take time and several viewings) so at least that is a plus. I will watch it many more times of course, a great moment in Blenders history.
Congrats to the Durian team, a lot of work goes into something this great. 
Well, you know… here we are, talking about story and tragedy and characters and maybe sadness …
… not about digital characters and polygons and raytracing and compositing and …
… and …
… w00t! w00t! Hey, Durian team, you did it! This is a story!! You made us feel!! You made us care!!
That is a huge accomplishment.
“Masterfully done! … Okay, enough of that. What’s next?” 
Anyone know the symbolism behind the flowers in the end sequence?
Im not sure what kind of flower they are even, but perhaps it symbolizes something in certain cultures? Been trying to figure it out for days…
I really like the story!
With all due respect to the Durian team (and I do think the visuals were superb), I found the story annoying.
Right at the beginning, she’s attacked by a guy for no apparent reason. I’m told that he is a guardian of the dragon lands, but that isn’t explained in the movie itself. Why the dragon lands need guardians, particularly guardians who attack without so much as a warning, is strange as well, seeing as the dragons are the size of dump trucks and breathe fire.
Secondly, I found Sintel herself almost unreadable. Why is she willing to spend years chasing after a baby dragon? Particularly under the circumstances, were I in Sintel’s place I would assume Scales was dead, and that any quest would be pointless. But even if she did have reason to believe he was alive, was it really worth a journey of hundreds of miles and countless dangers in order to retrieve him? I guess I could believe that, but since it seems more likely that he’d be dead I have trouble buying it.
And this may be just me, but I found all the early Sintel/Scales scenes mortifyingly embarrassing to watch. Even the name Scales makes me cringe every time I hear it.
Finally, the surprise ending: am I the only one who saw it coming? Nearly as soon as the fight began I wondered if the dragon might be Scales, and needless to say I was not particularly surprised when it was. As for the tragedy, I think it worked fine aside from being predictable… Sintel was way over her head, and the situation was bound to end badly in one way or another, especially since she was forced to kill a dragon while looking for a dragon. Once that happened there’s no way it could have turned out well, even if the victim hadn’t been Scales.
Maybe I’m being unfair. I know they worked hard on this, and visually the film is certainly superb. Given the limited narrative length, I think they did a wonderful job of capturing a glimpse of an implied larger world. However, the art does this better than the story itself does.
Mostly it just comes down to my dislike of the Sintel character, though. I just found her behavior childish and her motivation unreadable. I think the story could have been dramatically improved if she’d just been developed a bit more.
And to answer your question, AD-Edge, I think the flowers are supposed to be snowdrops. A quick search reveals the following (ehow.com):
Snowdrops symbolize new beginnings and hope because they typically bloom at the end of winter and announce the approach of spring. Growing close to the ground, they also represent death.
So that seems to be a good choice of symbolism.
Oh, and one more thing: did anyone else notice that when Sintel is looking for food in the village, she first finds a moldy peach, and then a durian? I thought that was pretty clever.
The thing is, a great many (say…) video games, and even science fiction tales (“Star Wars,” anyone?) manage to survive on very little “story.” The story that was chosen for this short movie … necessarily having been structured around the ruling constraint that it is a short movie … is not an unreasonable choice. The plot-devices are likewise constrained by time: it takes time to develop a more complicated plot, and time is one thing that the movie doesn’t have. It is “a short story.” Very short. The inspiration and general direction obviously borrow heavily from “video games.” (A reasonable source of inspiration and a road well-traveled.)
Certainly, I think that it is an outstanding piece of work because it does feature “story,” whether you prefer that story or not. The first Blender movie was visually dazzling; the second emphasized a running gag. (And I say both of these things in the nicest and most complimentary way!) This effort set out to tell a science-fiction/fantasy story, and it did so.
I agree with PlantPerson about the ending being a bit predictable. I guessed it was scales (odd, hopeless name) right when the fight started.
The thing I would like to know is why do we all over analyze it? Maybe it’s to do with film studies at schools?
Anyway I really liked it.
Predictable, yes. Sintel was a bit annoying, yes. But I think they did a good job with the story as a whole, given how much time the had to develop it (14 minutes). THough I think it would have been nice to see how Scales felt about being killed by her, see if she would forgive her.
@PlantPerson, I had similar questions, but I have reasonable answers that i accept myself, whether they are true or not.
The Guardians: The dragon did not attack the city, it retrieved its young. Perhaps they are defending the dragons from anyone looking to ‘make a name’ for themselves, therefore upsetting a dragon and making them turn on humanity (in saying that, i agree, why not sit down for a cup of tea first, other than the fact that attacking immediately makes for better screenplay)
Sintel’s motives: Alone in the world, living day by day on scraps, find a reason to live, someone to care for, and you want to hold onto that, no matter the outcomes? and in the event they died, reap revenge? As a father, i find this easy to believe. Just try to raise a hand to my daughter…
Scales: yea ok, i take your point. but… its not the worst crime anyone ever committed.
The Ending: Did you know it was coming, or guess at it? I knew as soon as the younger dragon dashed away that something was up, but I didnt lock it in as my answer until Scales hesitated.
All in all, a movie i have watched 3 times through, and many more times to come, and have demanded a number of friends and family watch it.
It left the heavy feeling of a tear welling in my eye, and made me think, even if just a little.
It’s an allegoric tale about obsessions. Obsession makes people blind to the point they don’t see life gettting past them nor recognize the original, aged recipient of such obsession.
They also ridicule the “hero on a epic journey” genre and question the real motivations behind such quests: here, the hero is a lone bum with no friends nor life who goes after a long quest to bring back her pet by even mudering its mother if it’s needed. It sounds truly lousy as far as real stories go, but plays wonderfully as an allegorical tale.
Why are people bothering about backgrounds for characters or motivations? It’s as much of a waste of time as doing that for fairy tales.
People who were expecting an entertaining popcorn-ridden Pixar short or an epic game cutscene were obviously let down. I’m much happy that there was so sensible and thought-provoking content in what is essentially a tech demo for blender 2.5.
this is all well discussed to depth here:
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=198707
BTW, I’m obsessed over Sintel and I’ll probably be making these very comments about people being unfair to it 10 years from now!! bwahahahaha
yeah, sometimes even recognizing the dragon isn’t enough to be freed from the obsession… 
If people are “making these very comments and speaking of being unfair” (instead of quibbling about the quality of the renders or the ambient occlusion or what-not), then that is such a huge step forward for Blender and open-source. 'Cuz it means that people are regarding the film as what it is: a (short) movie.
Congratulations, Durian Team!!
I agree with PlantPerson 100%.
His reasoned critique is that of a man (not a cheerleader) who actually took the time to truly think about the plot and conclude that it is significantly flawed at best, substandard at worst.
I would take it even further and say that:
- The plot was downright cheesy.
- Colin considers Avatar to be the pinnacle of good story telling, and that is painfully obvious in Sintel (there was no “I see you” moment, but, as PlantPerson already explained, there were quite a few things that made the more refined viewer cringe).
- I think this whole project would have done much, much, much better if Martin Lodewijk was at the helm.
I think that Martin has the unique ability to create the kind of movie that I was originally excited to see (cool spots of action that carry the plot as implicit, and with true depth).
Colin has a kind of “doe-eyed goody boy” personality that simply cannot stray too far off the Disney/Avatar path - tugging on heart strings and making a sound, but unable to recognize, and therefore create, the beauty of music (for that, one has to play the strings).
… No offense to Collin. He’s a talented director, I’m sure (although, the only thing I know about his work, aside from Sintel, is that plane movie…), but I think this project was a little too early for someone like him.
*NOTE (for all of you “pom-pom thumping amoeba” out there) - I’m talking about the plot exclusively -> The visuals were stunning, as I’m sure everyone would agree.
Technically, it is a great movie with beautiful scenes, but I feel the ending is beyond my expect and it is sad.