The 2017 The Savannah Film Festival Animated Shorts selections premiered this Monday, Oct. 30. Opening with the most touching short of the friendship between an abled girl and disabled boy, the focus of these shorts all seemed to be love in some way – platonic, romantic or even the love of a genre.
The first short was “Cuerdas,” a Spanish animation directed and written by Pedro Solís Garcia. The story follows Maria, an abled who is determined to make friends with a wheelchair-bound boy, and how their friendship grows. Despite the gorgeous lighting, animation and music, the story is unfortunately very tired for a disability narrative. The abled person is glorified for basic human kindness; the disabled person has no agency and treating him with kindness is regarded, by the world, as kids sneering, “Maria is so weird.” While the story may be regarded as cute by most, to disabled people it says, “you’re just a prop to inspire abled people to be decent human beings.” Though the story came from a good place, out of love for a boy who inspired the writer, this platonic story unfortunately reinforces the bias its protagonist was fighting.
“Gas Gummy Crisis,” at first, just looks like a trippy adventure story full of colorful characters and chipper music. In the details, however, it becomes clear that this is a love letter to video games, taking inspiration from classic games such as Mario with the design of the gas central system, the characters speaking like those in Animal Crossing and the eight bit style of the background music that plays throughout most of the short. Directed by Rodrigo Díaz and written by both Díaz and Andrés De Mula, Gas Gummy Crisis is as fun as a classic platform game, with all the affection of a fiance’s vow.
The most obvious, but nonetheless charming, love story shown at the Animated Shorts collection was “Follow Your Heart,” directed by Rob O’Neill and written by Michelle Cuevas. This seven-minute short is about a woman who doesn’t wear her heart on her sleeve, but on a leash. Everyone’s hearts in this world are manifested as both frightening and adorable heart-dog hybrids. (Does this mean cat people have no hearts?) After she catches her boyfriend cheating, however, her broken heart only finds solace in music – whether she’s playing or not. As a passing musician plays a soothing strum on his guitar, her heart runs away from her, chasing after the music and getting lost in the crowd. It is a year later, after her heart has healed, that she finds it again, still with the musician. With a great musical score, beautiful backgrounds and a sweet story, this is one animated short that not only promises to be loved, but to love in return.
Whether it comes from the love of a person, love of the craft or is just about finding love again, the Animated Shorts collection, which shows again on Nov. 2, at 9 a.m. at the Lucas Theatre, is one you’ll hate to miss. There are five additional shorts playing in the selections, so you’re sure to find a piece that you love, too.
Written by Sydnee Brashears.
Follow this link to read media producer Hunter Scully’s review of other animated selections.
