Without a doubt, Jibaro, episode nine in the third season of Netflix’s darling anthology Love, Death, and Robots, is one of the most astonishing pieces of animation in recent memory. Jibaro’s director, Alberto Mielgo, is a modern animation trailblazer, who continuously pushes the boundaries of conventional cartoons from the big studios to allow for more experimental artistic expression and innovative techniques. Incredibly stylized, Jibaro resembles rotoscoping works with the flowing movement of its characters and collages with its vivid and veracious panorama; they are, however, keyframe animation, painstakingly crafted after weeks of studying video references. Jibaro is a magnificent mix of 3D models on 2D backgrounds.
Interestingly, Alberto Mielgo started learning the language of aesthetics and colors through the digital medium, before trying physical drawing and oil painting. A fan of comic books, he explored storytelling devices where the visual carries the story instead of the words. This visionary (or madman) opted to continuously find ways to challenge himself as an artist with difficult techniques, demanding shots, and the use of technology. As he said in his interview with ScreenRant: “I love technology, and I like to push the boundaries, especially visually — not for the sake of just pushing the boundaries, but to serve the story. So I felt that that was the right way to do it. It was suffering, but we ended up doing it, which is cool.”