Fiction and animation go well together in this intriguing short film ‘Fantasy of Companionship Between Human & Animate’. The story is about how the future of companionship will become, focusing on a baby lion’s soul combined with its on artificial intelligence from the use of quantum physics to form an eternal relationship with a human girl to become soulmates.
Of course, in this day in age, there’s been progressive discussions about automation, artificial intelligence, and the debates of embracing it versus the risks of creating a machine that overthrows the humans that created them. In this short film, the focus is on the former of embracing the technology, in hope that there is such a thing as what the inanimate baby lion plush represents in giving the humans are in need of a connection with someone, or something. The short film brings the possible hope of reshaping the future of companionship.
Animation work on this film is visually stunning with incredible use of digital assets to help convey the emotions with the music. Every bit of detail on showing how an inanimate baby lion can interact with a human girl, giving the possibility that even though this is a fictional story, it could possibly be a reality one day in the future.
Transitions are heavily used in quick successions but is very effective in fast forwarding to the important parts of the story to keep viewers engaged in the story. If anything, this 15-minute film could definitely turn to a much longer feature, given how much potential it has with such incredible talent in all aspects of this project coming together to create a beautiful masterpiece.
The music behind the elegant moving pictures help navigate the path of how a plush inanimate baby lion is sold at a toy store, not as any ordinary toy, but one that would connect with human beings around the world. Manu Martin has truly created an amazing composition of music for this film. The London Symphony Orchestra also shines with their performance by executing Manu’s composition vision, which is sort of a love letter to the musical style of critically acclaimed 1940 Disney movie ‘Fantasia’.
The narrative work has given the right amount of emotion needed to support the story of this film. Pacing of the dialogue is excellent, and did a great job speaking at the right spots without much distraction to what is happening in front of the viewers. The story telling is very concise and helps support the animation work of what the bear and girl are doing by their actions.
Dr. Susan Lim & Dr. Christina Teenz Tanz are the masterminds behind the idea of this project. Dr. Lim is a surgeon, researcher, and entrepreneur, and Dr. Tanz is a neuroscience researcher, both with a passion to combine beautiful music with moving pictures and applying a dash of science in AI and robotics that shed a positive light-hearted story that is catered to audiences of all ages. Sure, it may not be technical behind the science of the topic, but it is an olive branch for the viewers to bring some curiosity to the topic. Samudra Kajal Saikia is the artist behind all the beautiful animation work he collaborated on with the project.
This project was clearly created by very passionate artists who specializes in the science field, and was able to take what they learned from science to create works of art. It is very inspiring to know that anyone from any field they work in, especially with long hours and dedication to their profession, still can turn to their favorite art forms, whether it is music, animation, storytelling.
‘Fantasy of Companionship Between Human and Inanimate’ is a proven success, as it has won numerous awards at the prestigious Cannes World Film Festival in February 2021. This is one of those examples that sheds a light of opportunity for anyone who wants to be a filmmaker can be one. And with the right talent behind the support of creating one’s vision into a reality, the validation of the hard work coming out of it is something that can never be taken away, because the film is created, and it is here to stay.
by: Trevor Brooks
© 2021. UniversalCinema Mag.