Broken Saints

Broken Saints is an award-winning, partially animated, Flash-animated film series by Brooke Burgess, Ian Kirby, and Andrew West. First published in 2001, it is a hybrid of the comic and animation art forms that its creators refer to as a "cinematic novel." Like a comic, characters on the most part remain in static poses and dialogue is indicated by speech balloons. However, rather than exclusively using sequential panels, animated sequences are used to switch scenes and help advance the story, while music (composed by Tobias Tinker and Quentin Grey, as well as classical pieces by Mozart and others) and sound effects are included, lending a more cinematic experience than one would ordinarily achieve with a comic strip alone.Broken Saints is some 12 hours long, split into 24 chapters published online between 2001 and 2003. The chapters become progressively longer, many with two or three acts. The culmination of the series, chapter 24, is five acts long - plus prologue and epilogue - and runs for 1 hour and 23 minutes.
Centered on philosophical, religious, political and spiritual themes, it tells the story of four strangers from "the quiet corners of the globe" connected by a vision they all receive of a coming evil. Their search for the truth behind the vision leads them to each other and to far larger and more disturbing truths than they could have expected.
The details of their respective visions vary, but each one contains a giant red cat's eye (accompanied by a terrific electronic screech), the ubiquitous symbol of the series. After seeing it, the four main characters fall into a temporary coma. The Eye -- a red circle with a thin black slit in the middle -- can easily be mistaken for a simplified Eye of Sauron, yet it is worth noting that Broken Saints made its debut before the release of the first of the three The Lord of the Rings films.
Several haikus (somewhat of a trademark of Brooke's) are presented as each episode loads, as well as quotes at the beginning and end from various sources, both tying in with themes and events of the episode. Several chapters contain animated scenes which introduce and close the chapter, and allude to various pop culture media such as The Matrix, Donnie Darko, Fight Club and The Wizard of Oz. Samples of songs from Montreal based band Godspeed You! Black Emperor were looped extensively in the soundtrack, and much of the dialogue, particularly in Chapter 14, is taken from the spoken word portions of there songs (some directly, and some slightly altered). The group is listed in the credits at the end of chapter 14 under "Loop Worship."
Each of the chapters was written and directed by Burgess, with Kirby doing the technical direction and West providing the artwork. The site was originally hosted (for the first 6 chapters) by Switch Interactive.
In 2005, a DVD version was released in association with Budget Monks Productions and Telefilm Canada, featuring improved or wholly redrawn art for the first several chapters, numerous featurettes, and a voice track for practically all dialogue. The voice actors included William B. Davis, David Kaye, Kirby Morrow, and Emmy-award winner Janyse Jaud. Burgess himself provided a character voice as well.
Recently a new DVD release was in the works, for international retail release. A few changes have been made, including a reworking of Chapter 13's artwork and commentary for each chapter. It was released on August 1st 2006.