by Toussaint Egan

You may have noticed that I've been absent from the Re:Frame rotation as of late. The reason is simple: My wife and I welcomed our first child (he says hi by the way) late last month, and naturally the bulk of my waking hours has consisted of feeding, changing, and all the other requisite fatherly duties that come with caring for a fussy newborn. Naturally, I haven't had much in the way of idle time to watch animation as of late, but that doesn't mean I haven't watched any animation. Case in point: Ersatz.

Ersatz is a 22-minute short film animated and produced independently by "Saint," a pseudonymous animator and artist based in Sydney, Australia. Set in the midst of a seemingly endless war, the film follows a nameless amnesiac nicknamed "Mophead" who awakens to find they've been involuntarily conscripted to fight in the "7th Halting Infantry Brigade" on behalf of the mysterious Crown army. Thrust into battle alongside half-human, half-creature hybrid soldiers known as "Contams," Mophead must fight to survive the ever-present threat of total war while working to uncover the truth behind his true identity.

Though released on January 10, 2026, I've been following the short's progress since discovering its initial announcement teaser in May of last year. The project itself dates back to March 2024, with Saint having taught themselves animation via Blender and formally beginning production in September of that year. 

What first struck me about Ersatz was its almost stop motion-esque aesthetic and macabre character designs. The setting, a nondescript plain of territory wracked by mortar fire and venous trench lined with barbed wire, takes obvious visual inspiration from the Western Front of World War 1, while the aesthetic and iconography of the Crown army offers the impression of occult-like regime of death-worshipping imperialists to whom everything is owed and nothing is sacred.

It's the kind of dark fantastical animation I'm naturally drawn towards, similar to Phil Tippett's Mad God or Takahide Hori's Junk Head. Such films weave an entire cosmos of a story out of whole cloth before thrusting you headfirst into it, with little to any concern for whether or not you comprehend the totality of its scale and intricacies. Aside from the worldbuilding, the central story of Mophead is compelling on its own, with a resolution that reframes the audience's understanding of the short's title in an entirely different way. Needless to say, I highly recommend that you watch it for yourself.

The reception to Ersatz so far has been very positive, with Saint currently working on pre-production of the next short(s), tentatively titled "Trench Dogs" and "Canary," set in the same universe. If you'd like to learn more about the production and creative process behind the short, you can read Gianmaria Simone's awesome interview with Saint over at Minimal Magazine. If you're looking for something small to tide you over, you can always check out Saint's earlier animated experiments on their YouTube channel, including "Lotus" and "Pact With God," two minute-to-two-minute-long supplementary shorts set in the Ersatz universe.