The Moviewatch 2009 Highlight Reel, IV
10. Happy Up Here
Baron Soosdon retained his kingly throne in 2009 with movies like Happy Up Here. While it's far from his only video this year, it remains a solid, joyful experience. A few dozen gnomes frolicking in a custom gnome wonderland really should appeal to just about everybody. Soosdon's unique vision of the World of Warcraft enriches the entire community, which is why it's so exciting to see anything new by him.
11. The Thorne of Rose Street
Selserene's masterpiece of noir thrills and intrigue saw its third installment this year, with the release of In For A Penny: Part Two: "The Thorne of Rose Street." (It's the third installment because there's a prologue.) She's continues moving the plot forward. More importantly, The Thorne of Rose Street shows a deep understanding of film noir, as well as an incredibly effective vision for translating it o machinima. It manages to be sexy without be vulgar, which is an absolutely impressive feat in any realm.
12. #Machinima Collaboration
Rescued from hard drives and disorganization by Baron Soosdon and Dopefish, the #Machinima Collaboration represents a collection of work by about a half-dozen machinimators. It is immense in scope and sublime in design. While it won't be suitable for everyone's tastes, it is certainly a wise choice with which to end this list. It is not representative of the trends in contemporary machinima, but I find it still speaks to where we've come from up until now.
Summary
This is obviously a very small sample of the work of machinima artists. It doesn't even touch the work by Myndflame, Nation, and many, many others. If WoW.com even tried to make this list comprehensive, we'd end up with an entire year worth of Moviewatches.
WIth that in mind, dear readers, which were some of your favorite machinimas of 2009?
Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.
