Heart Parade (2022)

Heart Parade (2022) is a live-action family movie that is about a careerist from Warsaw, who does not like dogs and has to go to Kraków for professional reasons, where she meets a charming widower, his son, and their four-legged pet. The scenes shift between a young woman and the widower's young son, as their storylines are separate from each other until the scene where the woman meets the widower's son.

Magda is the female protagonist of Heart Parade who works for a television company. In the beginning scene, she is excited to take her boss's place after her boss leaves for her retirement, but everything changes when her boss sees her dog Todd unconscious. The unconscious dog needs to be taken to an ambulance, and Magda, under false suspicion, is automatically fired. Magda tries to explain that she did nothing wrong, but this only makes the crisis worse.

It is revealed in the opening scene of Heart Parade that Magda dislikes dogs; the scene where she freezes with fear after seeing a dog shows viewers her fear of dogs. Magda is also a single woman who feels devastated until she gets the opportunity to travel from her hometown to Krakow, the town where the widower's son lives. She is determined to get her job back and prove her innocence.

In the second storyline of Heart Parade, Karol, the widower's son, is having trouble making friends and talking to girls. He is picked on by the older boys at his school due to his small size. He is often found sitting alone during lunch hour. His best and only friend is his pet dog; the dog has been living with him since his mom passed away. Karol encourages his father to find a new girlfriend in order to fill the void the father experiences inside his heart after his wife passed away. One day, a girl stands up to Karol's bullies. Karol builds up the courage to talk to the girl he likes.

The two storylines intersect when Magda meets Karol and his pet dog. Magda's road to overcoming her fear and dislike of dogs is the main topic of Heart Parade. Throughout the course of the movie, she discovers and learns that dogs can be best friends with humans. She admits that she had fun walking Karol's dog. The family photos of Karol and his father symbolize why dogs are important in our lives. The epilogue shows how Karol's family is complete, with Magda filling in as his stepmother, something Magda has never expected in her life. The movie closes as the scene changes from live-action to a 2D painting.

Though Heart Parade has some representation of women, we see no representation of any other minority. This movie is a foreign movie, with English subtitles shown at the bottom translating the foreign titles displayed on websites and text messages.