Watership Down (1978)

This TIFF Award For The Best Film In The Shadows Shorts Competition explores a child's understanding of losing their father.

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It is said that monsters are born from our darkest thoughts. They are made of our fears, anger, and pain. It is only logical that they would also be some of the most empathetic creatures in this world. ALTER and veteran Director Carlos Baena (Pixar, ILM) deftly explore this concept in the short film masterpiece, La Noria.

La Noria opens on a grieving young boy trying to finish a replica of a Ferris wheel art project that he had been working on with his late father before the latter's untimely passing. He finds himself unable to fit a copper center piece on a central spoke, and in his anger and struggle, knocks down the unfinished project. It is smashed to bits, and the copper piece rolls away into the darkness beneath his bed. Long associated with childhood fears, anxieties, and monstrosity, the dark place underneath the bed is naturally a place where the boy is unable to find the copper piece.

He is instead confronted with shadowy creatures that take on vaguely humanoid shapes. They are angry, wailing, and baleful beasts that seem to chase him first to the staircase that is lit up with wonderful string lights of varying colors. The juxtaposition of the lights on the stairs with the drab interior of the house and the dark creatures is fascinating, signaling a reversal of expectations if one is able to slow down long enough to process them. The grief-stricken boy, however, has no such luxuries. He panics, breaking through a locked attic door just as the monsters reach him. The monsters ultimately surround him in the attic. The boy turns in circles out of fear, looking at the monsters surrounding him, and also catches glimpses of himself in the mirrors and windows in the attic. His feelings overwhelm him, and he cries out just as a mirror bearing his reflection shatters.

I hate the idea that animation’s for kids; just because it’s animated doesn’t mean that it’s some silly cartoon and shouldn’t be taken seriously. There’s plenty of animated movies that are aimed for adults, but for this list, I’m just going to pick out five that have stood out for me.

Based on the 1972 novel by Richard Adams, and directed by Martin Rosen and John Hubley, Watership Down is about a group of rabbits who flee their home before it’s destroyed by humans. The rabbits find a new place to live and do whatever it takes to protect it from danger.

We follow brothers, Fiver (Richard Briers) and Hazel (John Hurt) as they go on their journey alongside fellow rabbits. At first, it all seems like a sweet, innocent story since we see rabbits and other cutesy creatures, but that turns out to not be the case. There are other groups of rabbits out there, and they are vicious; one of them practically runs a cult.