Guilt Plagues An Adorable Ghost In The Just-Release Short ‘Pepper And Monterey’

Ryan MacNeil’s animated short Pepper and Monterey is a family-friendly monster tale that has arrived just in time for Halloween.

There’s a lot to enjoy in Pepper and Monterey. The jokes are innocent but funny enough to be fun for adults, the animation is nostalgic without feeling too familiar, and the pacing is fantastic. In five minutes, the short tells a well-contained story but leaves us wanting more.

Pepper and Monterey was written, boarded, voiced, scored, and animated in Canada by artists whom MacNeil has worked with throughout his career at studios including Titmouse, Mercury Filmworks, and Copernicus Studios. “I called in favors for the most part,” he told us. MacNeil is currently a director at Wildbrain in Vancouver, where he recently served as animation director on The Snoopy Show.

MacNeil developed the film with capital from the now-defunct Startoon contest, which he won in 2017, and the Shaw Rocket Fund financed production. His original Pepper and Monterey contest submissions are available to watch on his Youtube channel. In addition to financing the short’s development, the contest also matched him with U.K. studio Wildseed, which worked with him throughout the film’s production.