Violet and Marlowe Rob a Bank

(dir. Wesley Wang)

By: Adam Freed

Nothing beats an animated short film about two cuddly bunnies living peacefully in their burrow.  Other than writer and director Wesley Wang’s version of that same story in which those two bunnies are actually revenge-seeking countercultural rabbits on a rampage.  With all of the panache of a jewel thief, Wang’s Violet and Marlowe Rob a Bank unfurls a complete and violent tale of political reckoning all in three head-spinning minutes.

Violet and Marlowe would love nothing more than to be the aforementioned pacifists one would likely expect to meet in an animated short.  And very likely they would be, if it were not for the cruel dictator who robbed them of their precious carrots, both their food source and primary form of currency.  With no time within the film’s 180 seconds to spare, the fuzzy duo are off like a shot, guns blazing as they seek to regain what is rightfully theirs.  What immediately jumps off the screen in Wesley Wang’s ballistic missile of a diminutive film is the quality and detail of its stunning animation.  In a complete story told in just three minutes the animation style and visual presentation needs to match the frenetic pace of its story, an accomplishment that sends Violet and Marlowe Rob a Bank into overdrive.  If there is room for criticism, it is that there feels to be so much more meat on the bone of this harrowing story, one that would benefit tremendously from even a tiny morsel of building dramatic tension.  As is, Wesley Wang has crafted what is sure to be a proof of concept of a story that is likely to get a future treatment that adds breadth and depth to its sparse frame.

Target Score 8/10 - 20 year-old director Wesley Wang has packed his muscled up animated micro film to the gills with all of the revenge-motivated action that a three minute story can hold.  Long on visual intrigue and bullet-riddled chaos, Violet and Marlowe Rob a Bank is very likely a starting point in the promising career of its young filmmaker. 

Violet and Marlowe Rob a Bank was reviewed as part of Movie Archer's coverage of the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival.