The Boat—Animated Web Comic

The Boat is a beautiful animated online experience based on a story by Nam Le and produced by SBS. SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) is well known here in Australia for producing and presenting lots of thought provoking programming, with a particular focus on the rich multicultural aspects of life in Australia. The Boat definitely adds to SBS’s great record.

Illegal immigration—’Boat People’—is a contentious issue here in Australia and has been for a number of years, with lots of differing opinions. What’s great about The Boat is that it shows the human side of this issue, the circumstances that force people into making this choice and the harrowing experiences that follow. The story itself looks at immigration from Vietnam in the 70s, but its relevance to what’s happening now is of no doubt.

Taking a quick peek at the code, it looks like they’re mostly relying on CSS3 animations and transforms & HTML5 audio tags, with some JavaScript trickery in the background to bring this all together. With the simple use of movement, timing and sound tied to scroll they’ve done a brilliant job of leading you through the story.

The people behind this project should be commended for a job well done and for telling a story that needs to be heard.

So check out The Boat – SBS. These stills just don’t do it justice.