The Present: A Touching Short Film
The Present is an animated short film that tells the story of a boy who plays video games. Sounds very simple, right? But in reality, it includes much more than it seems, revealing a deep and touching message.
This short film is hard to forget and is one of those that become engraved in your heart forever. It’s an audiovisual delight capable of changing our attitudes and, above all, of inviting young and old to make an important reflection on the issue of disability.
Short films are stories of just over 3-7 minutes that mainly have the following objectives:
- Reaching all audiences.
- Embracing our most sensitive fiber, touching our hearts, moving our emotions, and leaving us with a valuable lesson.
As their goals are very precise and the stories unfold seamlessly from start to finish, short films manage to hit their targets with the audience. Today, both Pixar and Disney, among other audiovisual entertainment companies, have chosen to broadcast short films before their movies.
Through short films, we seek to promote a specific issue as a capsule. At the same time, short films have been widely promoted in the big screen industry due to the success they have achieved. Many times the public goes to the cinema and is happy to discover that they play a short film before the feature film.
Certainly, the reactions produced by the short films are almost entirely positive. This says a lot!
Globally recognized
The Present is a short film that has already won more than 60 awards and has appeared in more than 180 film festivals.
Who was the creator? A young German student, Jacob Frey, an animation student at the Baden-Wuerttemberg film academy.
This short film was Frey’s final year project. His little jewel took on transcendental importance in the lives of many and you definitely can’t miss it.
It should also be said that since it premiered in 2014, the number of viewers has only increased. It’s already available on social media and has gained so much fame that it’s also been successful in Internet searches.
What is the plot of The Present?
The plot of The Present couldn’t be simpler but is no less creative or original for that.
In the beginning, we have a boy slumped on his couch with a frown on his face. The only thing he does all day is play video games. He doesn’t seem very happy and it doesn’t seem like his life is very entertaining. However, a good observer will perceive a few more things.
As the seconds progress, we’ll soon notice some small details: Low curtains, low light, and a certain apathy in our young protagonist. Then the boy’s mother enters the scene, who brings with her a gift inside a cardboard box.
It’s a very special gift: A puppy!
It’s a beautiful day outside, you should open the window and let some sun inside. Why don’t you stop playing and open your present I got for you? –says the mother while the boy keeps his eyes on the television and clings to his video game controller–.
”What is essential is invisible to the eye”
Something that we’re going to discover when we see the puppy is that it has a disability. It’s missing a leg. The child realizes this right away. At first, he reacts with strangeness and some discomfort. Deciding not to pay attention to it, he chooses to ignore the puppy.
However, the little puppy instantly charms us with its character and with its positive attitude. Despite its disability, for the dog, that missing leg is no obstacle when it comes to running, playing ball, and challenging life itself.
Throughout the short film, we’ll see it falling and getting up normally. That desire to improve, that overflowing vitality, and that positivism is what will finally end up taking the child out of his isolation, out of his comfort zone.
We’ll learn, for example, how at a given moment, all of us can be capable of assuming contradictory situations, of accepting what happens to us, and acquiring a resilient attitude.
This short film is clearly inspired by “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, but that doesn’t detract from its originality. On the contrary, it gives it power.
Beyond appearances, beyond our shape, our size, our nature, or our physical aspect, is what’s really essential.
Therefore, beyond that nice face and that small body where a leg is missing, there’s a true hero who struggles to improve himself every day and who now wishes above all to win the heart of a child.
Here at You Are Mom, we invite you to watch the short film with your children and above all, to discover the surprise at the end of it. It’s then when the best detail is revealed, one that will undoubtedly make us tear up and reflect.
Click here to watch The Present yourself!