'Lemmings' scales a new peak

PROVO — If lemmings traveled with passports, this group of digital rodents would have stamps in theirs from all over the world.

There was a trip to a Korean film festival. A recent foray to the Cannes Film Festival in France. And more than 20 other stops at film festivals across the globe.

In June, the lemmings will return to U.S. soil when they drop by Los Angeles for the "student Academy Awards," where the Brigham Young University students responsible for creating a film about the furry critters will receive an Oscar for its digital animation.

But it's all routine to former BYU student Tom Mikota.

" 'Lemmings' is kind of a long time ago," said Mikota, who now works for a California company that provided computer animation for movies like "Scooby Doo 2" and the upcoming "Garfield."

Mikota, who detailed the characters' fur in the 5-minute film "Lemmings," said he remains thrilled to see the student production receive awards but has lost track of all its accolades.

There was critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival and a "student Emmy" awarded in March.

Now, the students responsible for creating "Lemmings" will add an Oscar to their collection — though they won't know if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present them with the gold, silver or bronze award until the June 13 ceremony.

Films by students from New York University and the School of Visual arts in New York are competing against "Lemmings" in the animation category, but Mikota isn't worried about who wins.

"The work coming out of other schools is good, but nobody else can do it on the scale that BYU can," he said.

More than 50 students majoring in English, computer science, communications, illustration, music and theater and media arts participated in the project, which started two years ago.

The film's plot involves the common — but apparently incorrect — belief that lemmings, small furry Arctic rodents that resemble a short-tailed mouse, willingly leap en masse into water or off precipices to curb their population.

The short film focuses on one particular lemming — a book-savvy fellow named Cliff — who tries to persuade others not to take the group leap.

Its clever plot line, good animation and the the fact that so many students collaborated to make it, have helped make "Lemmings" stand out above other student projects, said R. Brent Adams, associate professor in the School of Technology at Brigham Young University.