Team 4 - Animated Short Story Structure analysis for "The Present"

    

"The Present" by Jacob Frey and Markus Kranzler

Team 4: Adora Tran, Josecarlo Torres, Li Zhu, Dylan Wheeler, Shion Takeshita

Synopsis: A little boy plays video games all the time. One day, his mother gives him a present in the form of a three-legged puppy. At first, the boy is disgusted and annoyed at the puppy's presence and form. Later on, he becomes inspired by the puppy's optimistic attitude and leaves the couch to go play with the puppy outside. This reveals that the little boy is also handicapped. 

1.   Progression 

Through the creation of the atmosphere of the scene and the progression of the story, the film shows us the changes in the protagonist's mood while furthering the development of the story. From the beginning, the boy resists contact with the outside world and repels the puppy. In the middle, he began to pay attention to the puppy's behavior and was inspired by it. Eventually, he stood up and walked outside into the sun with the puppy. The film gradually involves the viewer in the story. Fantastic design.

2.   Conflict 

Character vs. Character: This is the most obvious and surface-level conflict of the entire film. The boy is against the dog's presence for the middle part of the film.

Character vs. Self: Our team analyzed that the boy's initial disgusted reaction may have been because he viewed himself in a similarly negative way and therefore projected that judgment onto the dog. This was a subtle way of putting an internal conflict underneath the main conflict and therefore adding depth to the boy and overall story. This conflict arc also makes the boy more sympathizable and relatable.

Character vs. Environment: The boy is isolated from the outside world. His mother comes in to brighten up the room which the boy dislikes. By the end of the film after the resolution of the two other conflicts, he goes outside into the light to play with his dog. 

3.   Characters

The main characters are the 3-legged puppy and the boy. The mom is a side character that shows up briefly at the beginning.

4.   Surprise

  The surprise of this short was that the boy was just like his new puppy, and was also missing his leg. This gives the story depth, relatability, and a new sense of understanding of the entire film. 

5.   Timing of information

At first, the boy is disgusted with the dog after realizing that it only has 3 legs. The audience is unsure or confused as to why the boy may have reacted in such a manner. Later on, the film reveals that the boy is just like the dog in that they both have a missing leg. 

This initial anticipation keeps the audience interested to see what happens next and leads them to the surprise hook near the end. 

6.   Novelty 

The film features two disabled main characters with the boy having a subtle, nuanced personality as well. Most animated stories, let alone stories in general, don't usually center around physically disabled characters.

7.   Visual Flow 

The visual flow greatly supports the narrative structure and emotional resonance. The short film starts off with a dark background to show how isolated the boy is. The mother is technically the one who brings the present and metaphorically "brightens" his life up. This can be seen at the beginning as well where she brightens up the room by rolling up the blinds out of the way to let the sun through. 

There is an anticipated build-up for the surprise where the shot obscures the boy getting up but the SFX hint to the audience that he is getting on crutches. The dog is confused and watches the shadow walk past. Then there is the final reveal of the boy actually on crutches to solidify the surprise.

The surprise is also effective because, for the majority of the film, the props and shots are laid out in a way that smartly obscures the boy's missing leg from view so the audience doesn't realize anything wrong or off-putting until the reveal. They even purposely show shots of only one leg to lead the viewer into thinking everything is fine.

This environment symbolism comes back at the end of the film when the boy goes out instead of staying inside.