Synopsis: Four common city birds set out to save their homes from urban expansion. An Animated Storytelling project. “Animated Storytelling” is a collaborative acting and storytelling class where students are paired with an acting teacher (Dana Leigh Snyder), a scientist (Christopher Rota, ornithologist), and a visual artist (Stavros Pavlides) to create an animated film about a particular species of animal. The original story, title, and drawings were developed through a collaborative artistic process. "Birdtopia" was created entirely in the virtual classroom during Covid lockdown.

Juror comments: Dana Leigh Snyder, founder of Urban Wildlife Arts, created Birdtopia virtually with a group of students during the COVID lockdown in 2020. It is a charming animated short with a narrative that is recorded by a group of young voices. I enjoyed the representation of the birds, humans via high heels and construction boots, and the sets for the bird habitat. The environmental topic and creative solutions from these children are inspiring.

The storyline follows a hawk and three songbirds that team up to stop the cutting down of trees at a nearby park. The story develops from the statement of the problem with the developers, to communicating with the media, to organizing a group of bird friends that want to make a difference in the world. The character development is fleshed out in a “get to know you” roundtable - the same strategy used to make their decision about how to make their presence known to the non-bird world. The animation is quite well done, and very effective. There is a lot of anthropomorphism going on from these young writers, which is charming; you want to believe the birds are talking. The audio quality varies, but considering that each voice comes from one of the kid’s home computers, that is understandable. The music is quite charming – everything from the piano solos, to string quartets, to drum solos, to rock with a bit of synthesizer.

The message of this story is that if you don’t try to make a difference in the world, you won’t.

I give Birdtopia 4 out of 5 stars and recommend it for ages 4 to 10. By Nancy K. KIDS FIRST!.