Illustrator and animator Run Wrake's 2005 short film Rabbit (available to watch online) is included in the Cinema 16 World Short Films dvd collection. I found it captivating and a little disturbing. Based on illustations by Enid Blyton illustrator Geoffrey Higham, Wrake creates an original paper cut-out feel to tell a fable-esque story of two greedy children who pay a big price for their avarice. They are violent hunters, and discover a magical idol inside a rabbit that they cut open. The idol turns flies into jewels, so they trick him with the jam that he loves, and kill a lot of other animals to attract flies and maggots to annoy him. They are single-minded in their destruction in order to be wealthy, and in the end, learn that all the transformations are mere illusions, thus leading to their demise by the thousands of flies captured in their room. Without any dialogue, Wrake conveys a natural justice sensibility that is both edgy and classic. I'm debating if I should show it to Micah- it might be too scary, and yet perhaps it'd be medicine for his 5 yr old selfishness?
ha- i love this idea of using media as punishment or maybe discipline.
ReplyDeleteworse than my dad's spankings (which were not traumatic- don't worry), worse than a time-out, worse than my recurring childhood disaster nightmare. More like watching "Fall of the House of Usher" at 8 or bringing my 5 year old brother to Gremlins or Max und Moritz or the terrifying version of Hansel and Gretel we had. But not as bad as "Killing Fields" in 3rd grade." Or a daylong 4th grade church camp workshop on Kampuchea (UCC- it was reality and awful). Or "Clockwork Orange" at 24.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet totally different, purposeful.