"A Case On A Peel," a short, hand-drawn animated film by Aidan Terry, a Santa Ynez resident and sixth-grade student in Los Olivos, has been selected by the 2005 Santa Barbara International Film Festival for its world premiere exhibition.

The film will be screened at the Animation Festival program with three other animated films: a pair of films by UCSB students and the world premiere of the new animated film from the Academy Award-nominated animator Don Herzfeld.

Terry, 11, is a writer, designer, animator, co-editor and director of "A Case On A Peel," his first film, about the comic chaos when an innocent banana peel is liberated by a hip litterbug.

A carefree stroll on a beautiful day should be the recipe for a little rest and relaxation. But what does the recipe look like if you throw in a slippery character, a run-in with the police, a litterbug, collisions, a jail cell and a state trooper?

Terry started drawing at age 3, and it soon became very clear that art was his passion.

"When I was 9, in the fourth grade, I began taking a course that was designed to teach kids about the basics of animation," said Terry. "The course is the creation of John Teton of Earthlight Pictures in Santa Barbara. After about six months, I decided I wanted to draw my own movie. John warned me that making an entire film was a lot of work, but he was always supportive and encouraging no matter how hard it got."

It took Terry about six months to do the original drawings for the movie, including changes along the way as he learned new things in class.

"I pencil-tested as I finished each scene, and then hand-colored each drawing, about 850 of them. Even then, after shooting there was a lot more redrawing, coloring and reanimating. The process took about seven more months," Terry said.

Finally, the film was edited, a soundtrack was created and the whole package came together about 18 months after its start.

Teton summed up the project this way: "Having taught annimation to hundreds of students, ranging from kids to Pixar specialists, I must say I find it unlikely that anyone Aidan/s age has come up with such an accomplished animated movie under his own direction.

"He conceived and animated it at age 10 and is now 11, but it shows enough mastery of cinematic and motion design principles and plain creativity to be worthy of an A grade had it been submitted by a college student."

"A Case On A Peel" will be screened twice during the festival: at 10:15 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 2, and at 1:45 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 5, at the Metro 4.

Jan. 28, 2005