This is a short animated film from Bill Plympton. There will be spoilers ahead:
Full disclosure-I'd happily watch a Bill Plympton cartoon consisting of two characters reading lines from a tax instruction book, because the animation would be worth seeing. Thus, the fact that I enjoyed this cartoon even though I'm not sure I understand what happens here (and I'm not really certain I'm supposed to "understand" anything) probably is of little help to anyone else. I'll try to discuss this so that it makes some sense.
A sleeping man is awakened by something breaking his window. The rest of the short consists of him, weapon in hand, imagining what the creature he's following the footprints of looks like. As he sees greater and greater devastation in its wake, his imagination runs rampant. More than once, he fires at nothing tangible.
He crosses water and scurries between buildings, often with several images of him crossing. At last, he comes face to face with his quarry, with predictable reactions to what he finds. The ending of the short is rather murky, I suspect intentionally murky, with several possible endings suggesting themselves. Only Bill Plympton likely knows just what his intent is here.
This was on the ten film shortlist for the Animated Short given by AMPAS, though it wasn't one of the five finalists. It's an extra short included in the program of 2015 Oscar Nominated Short Films Animation showcase, which is available for download and it's worth watching.
Full disclosure-I'd happily watch a Bill Plympton cartoon consisting of two characters reading lines from a tax instruction book, because the animation would be worth seeing. Thus, the fact that I enjoyed this cartoon even though I'm not sure I understand what happens here (and I'm not really certain I'm supposed to "understand" anything) probably is of little help to anyone else. I'll try to discuss this so that it makes some sense.
A sleeping man is awakened by something breaking his window. The rest of the short consists of him, weapon in hand, imagining what the creature he's following the footprints of looks like. As he sees greater and greater devastation in its wake, his imagination runs rampant. More than once, he fires at nothing tangible.
He crosses water and scurries between buildings, often with several images of him crossing. At last, he comes face to face with his quarry, with predictable reactions to what he finds. The ending of the short is rather murky, I suspect intentionally murky, with several possible endings suggesting themselves. Only Bill Plympton likely knows just what his intent is here.
This was on the ten film shortlist for the Animated Short given by AMPAS, though it wasn't one of the five finalists. It's an extra short included in the program of 2015 Oscar Nominated Short Films Animation showcase, which is available for download and it's worth watching.