OUAN602 - Manchester Animation Festival: I, The Animal

I, The Animal by Michalina Musialik as part of New East Cinema was a Polish animation that had a profound effect on me when I saw it because it depicted a metaphoric approach to a story rather than a literal approach.

The animation depicts three friends playing an innocent game in which one takes on the role of a pig and becomes the target of aggression – this is supposed to act as an allegory of the birth of hatred in Nazi uniform. Hence the visuals featured in the animation and undoubtedly the reason why the entire short is depicted in white, black and red colours - the same colours used by the Nazi party from 1920 - 1945. Aside from the explicit visuals and metaphorical narrative, there is a lot that can be derived from this animation, from the political ideas to ideas centred around animal rights and at a reach perhaps the parallels between the holocaust that took place during WWII and the animal holocaust, depicted in the way a the human and pig are interchangeable in the animation. This is merely one implication of the story I have considered and is no way cited anywhere but I thought that this animation holds a considerable amount of meaning and themes within it even if not explicitly intended by the creator or creators. This was one of the more violent and disturbing animation I've seen in all aspects from the visuals, sound and narrative and overall was a very effective animation at conveying the different themes that could possibly be interpreted from it. With themes such as Nazism, hatred and aggression being the foundation of the narrative and the most obvious aspects of the overarching ideas communicated.