Review and critique at least one short film production

The film Happiness is an American film directed by Steve Cutts made in 2017. Happiness is a film about a rat whose life goal is to seek happiness and fulfillment by being a consumerist. Although, he soon learns the negative consequence of buying things in order to be happy. The main themes of this film is materialism and consumerism. Rats are scavengers who consume things so the use of rats to represent consumers is a good use of symbolism. The overall message of the film is that happiness can not be bought.

This film is an animation and depicts a modern world inhabited by personified rats and their lives in a city. The city is overcrowded with rats. Rats are on the subway, rats are in cars, rats are in buses, rats are walking around the city, and rats are buying things. To help show the theme of consumerism huge billboards and bold signs were shown to advertise all the products that could be bought. The different things that the rat bought were also shown. For example, the rat bought a red convertible. But, as the car got old and he was no longer happy with it he decided to buy something else. The rat learned that the negative consequence of buying things to make himself happy is that once his things grow old and no longer work he will no longer be happy. This is the formation of a cycle because he will want to buy something else to make himself happy again.

In this short film there is both diegetic sound and non-diegetic sound. The diegetic sound was used to make the natural noises that rats make. This helped to show that there were so many rats, a lot of consumers. Diegetic sound was also used to convey the busy city environment (car sounds) that the film was based in. The non-diegetic sound was made with music that set the happy (when you get something) or depressing (when you lose it, when it gets old and your happiness runs out) mood of the film. The music’s speed also reflected the speed of the rat’s actions. If he was buying a lot and feeling happy then the music was fast and when he was not buying anything and was not happy the music was slow.

The camera techniques that were used were close ups, long shots, birds eye view shots, POV shots, and panning shots. There were close ups, long shots and bird eye view shots to show the rats, including the main rat. POV shots showed what the main rat saw. Panning shots were used to portray the continuous actions of the rat as he consumed (bought) things.

One editing technique that was used was fast moving shots. The fast moving shots created the fast pace of the rat’s actions when he bought things. The fast moving shots also represented the business of the city with all the active rats.

Happiness is aimed at a general audience, people of all ages because materialism and consumerism are issues that all people deal with.

This film made me feel surprised at what materialism could do to people. When I saw a scene in the film about Black Friday where the rats were tearing each other from limb to limb just to get objects it really portrayed a sad but powerful message. The message was: people will do anything to get what they want in order to feel happy and satisfied. Just seeing so many rats also made me feel unconformable as I’m afraid of rats because of their sharp teeth, beady eyes and hairy bodies.

With the Black Friday example in the film, I felt that Cutts did a great job at conveying a message about materialism and consumerism. The audience was able to relate to that type of behavior that happens during Black Friday. It’s common that when there is a sale and everyone is able to get what they want for a great deal the demand is high and when there isn’t enough things to sell to people this will cause people to compete with each other in order to be the lucky one who will get the objects and feel happy and satisfied. Throughout the film when the rat was buying things people could relate to that because that’s what they also do.

I would recommend this film because it presented two important issues: consumerism and materialism that people in today’s society deal with. By watching this film people can learn more about these two issues and their negative consequences. I would recommend this film to people of all ages because an animated film is enjoyable for everyone.