Back
when Saturday Night Live was funny
they had a gag commercial for Einstein Express: “when it absolutely, positively
has to be there the day before yesterday.” The Three Little Ninjas can top
that. They pledge to deliver “whatever, whenever, wherever” and they have the
packing tape and time travel capabilities to back it up in Karim Rhellam &
Kim Claeys’ short film Three Little
Ninjas Delivery Service (trailer here), which screens during the 2016 Ottawa International Animation Festival.
Their
storefront looks unassuming, but the flyers the Three Little Ninjas distribute
through space-time wormholes do not lie. You might think they have their work
cut out for them when an entitled princess in a fantasy realm who does not want
to be rescued orders a replacement dragon, but the trio merely jaunt back in
time to pick up a dinosaur. Okay, so they are not paleontologists, but they are
definitely close enough for government work.
The
Three Little Ninjas are just good,
clean, slightly un-PC madcap fun. Delivery
Service is clearly intended as a proof-of-concept pseudo-pilot, which is
fine, since animation fans would definitely welcome regularly deliveries in the
future. If it becomes some kind of franchise, Rhellam & Claeys will
eventually have to do more to differentiate the Ninjas’ personalities, but as a
one-off, the ruckus energy of it all is thoroughly entertaining.