_______________________ 2d animation | the mall The Mall | Banners |Concepts
Background:
People, or in this story, our characters, are more important than inanimate
objects. The little group is surrounded by things, more than they’ll
ever need, but due to their various weaknesses and strengths (and really just
because they’re alive, lonely and bored), they are very dependent on
each other.
The shadow premise is that people (were) more important than the objects they
so desired, and they forgot that and eventually destroyed themselves. Only their achievements,
possess-ions and toys remain.
Introduction to The Mall:
The world as we know it, has come to an end. All humans have been destroyed
with their own DNA SmartWeapon ™, leaving buildings and technology intact but
vaporising larger life-forms - anything bigger than a domestic cat.
In a shopping mall on the edge of a Cape Town suburb there are signs of some
life, most of it rather strange. Four creatures have decided to adapt themselves
to deal with the new world they find themselves in. Long Beach Mall is their
play- and battleground.
In this eerie and sometimes sad monument to human civilisation and consumerism,
they entertain themselves, squabble, fight life and death battles and sometimes
just hang out.
They may for example watch movies that remained after the humans
were vaporised. The cinema is their no-mans-land; it lends a sense of occasion
to their meetings and Scribble likes swinging on the red velvet curtains.
Sometimes Scribble and Drak get bored with watching movies and invent new
voice-overs of their own while they watch the same old six movies the humans
left behind. (Yes, thank you , Hercules Returns...)
Among the images on the left, there is a photographic studio, with pictures of laughing children, it’s a little reminder that everyone is gone. In the jewellery shop - Scribble has a lot of fun in there, wearing some of the bigger rings around his wrist. These visual jokes would carry on throughout the movie. I also want some audience members to feel a little outraged that a squirrel is running around with very expensive bling on his wrists and ears.
Left - a competition, to guess how many balls there are in the cage. Scribble enjoys hiding from everyone in there and then pelting them with a ball from on high as they pass by. Also shown here areDrak's bead shop and mannequins as monuments to the Departed.
So there’s an ecological awareness message that is never too obviously stated, that we need to look after the world if we are to remain in it. Having shot these pix in the mall I came out feeling very glad to be alive and that is what I want audiences to feel even if the material seems a bit (okay - in some places, very) dark.
Possible conflicts other than personality-based :
animals vs machines; flying vs walking/other; conservative vs alternative; young (Scribble and Drak) vs the older generation (Cogs and Sheena); male vs female.
