Oh, what a difference five years makes.
I watched this before I watched Path of a Cowboy, and I kind of wish I had done it the other way around so I could fully appreciate the maaaajor difference between the two. You've certainly come a long way!
The coloring on this was breathtaking, and kudos on the music composition - both of your works display a playful musicality that's rather nice to see. The style and animation is simple and not particularly slick, but it lends itself nicely to the gentle, laid-back pacing of the entire piece. I think everything benefited from the change of ending, too.
My one-and-a-half gripes are as follows: At times, the pacing was a little TOO slow. It could have used a few choice editing cuts here and there. The half gripe lies in the fact that, as a result of the slower pacing, the little bits of comedic slapstick felt a little trite and/or predictable by the end. (The bear was great, though.)
A tad bit more backstory on our intrepid explorer might have also added a bit more on the emotional end of things. He might be the everyman, but he's an everyman who seems to have quite a lot of free time on his hands and nothing to tether him down, so...not such an everyman after all, but I don't know why. Which means it's harder for me to connect to the piece emotionally.
But I'm nitpicking. Overall, beautifully executed, and congratulations on having come so far animation-wise! I'm excited to see what you'll do next.
