A fox is being chased by a hunter and, within a few seconds of the film opening, he is shot dead. His spirit continues to run though, and he finds himself in a whole new realm, with other animals recently deceased also experiencing the same.
I have some issues with this short film – two in particular; however despite these it did still work for me, with the darker ending being particularly memorable and quite moving. The presentation style for the most part feels like The Snowman in the safe images of playing animals (or their spirits) and quite uplifting ideas of the afterlife and such things; it works, but at the same time I felt it was softballing me with what it was doing, and it mostly felt like something produced for an early afternoon television slot during the festive period. However, as the film spends longer in this spirit world, we warm to the fox and the rabbit, while at the same time start to understand how it works. This leads to a conclusion which I was quite surprised by for a couple of reasons.
These reasons are connected because on one hand I was surprised by how much I felt as a result of it, because up to that point I had been quite cynical of the film's approach; but also I was surprised that I still felt this even though it was, in essence, a rather heavy anti- fur statement. This is not to say I am pro-fur, but I am generally anti-emotive political statements, so it is to the film's credit that it manages to have its cake and eat it with me, because I still felt moved despite the rather obvious heart-string pulling of the majority of the delivery, combined with the message of the conclusion.
So, not without issues, and probably these issues will affect more people than would be ideal – it certainly does walk a very line of being manipulative; however for the most part it is nicely done, and does have the emotional impact it intended to.
I have some issues with this short film – two in particular; however despite these it did still work for me, with the darker ending being particularly memorable and quite moving. The presentation style for the most part feels like The Snowman in the safe images of playing animals (or their spirits) and quite uplifting ideas of the afterlife and such things; it works, but at the same time I felt it was softballing me with what it was doing, and it mostly felt like something produced for an early afternoon television slot during the festive period. However, as the film spends longer in this spirit world, we warm to the fox and the rabbit, while at the same time start to understand how it works. This leads to a conclusion which I was quite surprised by for a couple of reasons.
These reasons are connected because on one hand I was surprised by how much I felt as a result of it, because up to that point I had been quite cynical of the film's approach; but also I was surprised that I still felt this even though it was, in essence, a rather heavy anti- fur statement. This is not to say I am pro-fur, but I am generally anti-emotive political statements, so it is to the film's credit that it manages to have its cake and eat it with me, because I still felt moved despite the rather obvious heart-string pulling of the majority of the delivery, combined with the message of the conclusion.
So, not without issues, and probably these issues will affect more people than would be ideal – it certainly does walk a very line of being manipulative; however for the most part it is nicely done, and does have the emotional impact it intended to.
