OpenTube

ERSATZ Short | "Trench Dogs"

saint greaver

2,957,446 views

The conditions of the Southern front are undoubtedly harsh, but its undying soldiers find comfort in all manner of canine and canine-adjacent companions.

This is the first short following the ERSATZ pilot (ERSATZ | PILOT) as part of the Kickstarter stretch goals! The second short, 'Canary,' is in production, as well as the groundwork for continuing the main series.

Merch & Plushie | https://greaver.store/
Patreon | Patreon: saint1

Illustrations:
D.G. Devil
saint greaver

Voice actors:
Interviewer - Taher Chy
Archie - Valentine Stokes
Charlie - John Whinfield
Kalliniki - Pippa Vos

Music:
Maichol Bondanelli | @maicholbondanelli

Sound design & mixing:
Solène Falk (Archifulk)
The Mars Worm
Knyght

Dubs:
Ukrainian - Soloway Studio
Latin American Spanish - SKVox Studio
Portuguese Brazilian - SKVox Studio
Thai - Maina Studio
Vietnamese - Vagabond Studio
Volunteer Hindi Sub by Prithviraj Hada
Volunteer Russian Sub by anya_donbassenok and Mystohh

Production coordination:
Angie Ngo
Flynn Arvythis (by the way, check out My Girlfriend Enid! My Girlfriend, Enid — Full Film Trailer)

Special thank you to Sydney Zane in the Membrane and Tanuja S.

_____________________________________________________________________

No AI was used in this production.

Thank you all so much. Support indie animation!

20 Comments

@ilanselaphiel2557 1 month ago

What I find fascinating is that, despite the horrific and most likely painful transformations shown, the dogs all continue to exhibit dog-like behaviours: wagging its tail when pet, answering to commands and standing at attention, staying close to caretakers. Keeps them from being simply disturbing and gives them this sad aura: no matter how mangled and butchered, they're still good boys and girls craving love and attention.

@marshmallsy 1 month ago

It's genuinely so cute that Freya, the terrifyingly fast centipede-dog-creature that looks straight out of The Thing, is still just a puppy to them that they coo over.

@mochinchin6764 1 month ago

Charlie and Cathy’s bones being intertwined with each other rather being fused was a great detail. It’s sort of a twisted kind of hug.

@Rashoni 1 month ago

Never knew slice-of-life body horror and wartime-interview themes would actually work this damn well. Really uniquely-good mix of ideas!

@toaster9922 1 month ago

2:45 I adore the implication that the only reason the dogs are rezzed to is because the soldiers begged for it, and the higher ups obliged.

@birdcatheaven 1 month ago

The realization that Cathy was still alive separately to Charlie when her tail started wagging was one of the best body horror moments in this entire project so far

@Camix-GirARTS 1 month ago (edited)

Usually in this type of trope when someone is surgically fused with someone else I find it dumb because they aren't ''staying togheter forever'' since the other character is dead. The fact that in this short the dog is actually still alive after the procedure is both refreshing and terrifying

@iratibibo2426 1 month ago

"My heart can beat for both of us". Wow. Your work is on an insane level. Breathtaking. Scary, and touching, and beautiful.Thank you

@markimlem 1 month ago

"She's my best friend, ain't ya girl?" While her tail starts wagging, oh my god man, beautiful story and animation

@saassydragon 1 month ago (edited)

This took “Man’s best friend” to a whole other level 😭

@TheCthultist 1 month ago

I love how the slide mentions Charlie no longer being ill-tempered after being fused with Cathy comes off entirely as him now just straight up having a super friendly cattle dog’s disposition.

@J09-555 1 month ago

The lady having a Russian accent because Russia was the only one to allow female volunteers for direct frontline combat was a nice touch

@jamzee_ 1 month ago

I fear to imagine how desensitized the home front must be to where Charlie and Cathy’s appearance won’t scare people.

@ghostkai8713 1 month ago

You can't convince me Charlie being nicer now ISN'T because the friendly personality traits of a domesticated dog are bleeding into his consciousness through the mixed nervous system surgery, and that's amazingly horrifying.

Great work, and can tell the improvement in modelling and rendering since the first film already!

@Aestheticchickennugget 1 month ago (edited)

Charlie is one of the few people who can wholeheartedly say “She’s a rescue dog but I like to say she rescued me”

@TheniceCat39 1 month ago

Freya is like one of those creatures you'd imagine running beside you on a car ride as a kid.

@ROTTENSUN-v6e 1 month ago (edited)

Wow. I am so impressed with the body horror aspect of this show, it's driving me nuts how Charlie and Cathy are BOTH still conscious. This is such fresh air of creativity and I'm craving for more of this masterpiece. KEEP IT UP!

@ethon3733 1 month ago

2:05 I think this line implies that they used to try to be far more careful and selective with resurrection, but eventually decided to chuck all caution out the window and resurrect soldiers as often and aggressively as they could, leading to the deformities and mutations.

@monarchbulldog2519 1 month ago

I like how they're not really monsters they're just horrifically disfigured and dismantled regular soldiers

@InspirationalStrudel-yn4kx 1 month ago (edited)

I don't know why but when the interviewer said: "this is for back home" I just have this gut feeling that this video is never, like never ever gonna get back home they'll never show this videos to their families not with how much there anatomy horrifically changed I'd imagined if the families saw this they'll be horrified with there relatives looking... unrecognizable.