Snow Bear
Rating: 5/5
By: Nathaniel Simpson
I'm a sucker for animated short films. Whenever I go see the newest Pixar picture, I am incredibly excited for the short that plays before it. One of my favorite short films of all time is Pixar's Knick Knack, and I always tear up whenever I watch Lava. There is something about these family-friendly short films that just exude these feelings of childlike wonder and nostalgia, making us feel like a child watching this short film play out on the screen. That is the exact reaction I had to Aaron Blaise's beautiful new short film, Snow Bear. This fantastic, hand-drawn short film feels so incredibly special to Blaise and you can feel the love and heart he poured into making this picture for over three years, and the feeling that the viewer gets watching it is like being wrapped into a warm hug. It's honestly brilliant, in my opinion, and makes me fall in love all over again with animated short features.
The entire short follows a lonely polar bear who is on the hunt for a friend. When he finds that it is harder to make friends than he thought, he decides to create one out of snow, allowing him to feel that sense of company and happiness in this lonely atmosphere. The entire movie features no dialogue, and relies on Blaise's beautiful drawings and Mark Mancina and Marlon E. Espino's beautiful score. To start, the animation here will knock your socks off. It's genuinely so beautiful to see a hand-drawn film play out before us, and it feels so much more personal and creative than the CG animation that has been ruling the animation world today. While both forms of animating styles have their pros and cons, I'm always partial to the beauty and dedication of hand-drawn, and you can feel all the work going into this picture from Blaise.
From the mountains to the different climates to the polar bears he designs for this movie, they all work seamlessly to craft this picture. At the same time, the animation works hand-in-hand with the story Blaise came up with to really make the audience feel for the polar bear. In films with no dialogue like this, the filmmaker has to make sure the audience loves the main character or the movie won't work. We simply adore this bear, and want to see him make a friend. For me, I loved watching him interact with his snow-friend, and it brings me immense joy seeing this. Then, when we hit the falling action of the story, where we think the bear will end up alone, it does make us feel how the bear is feeling. It genuinely brought a tear to my eye when I already know how this movie is most likely going to wrap up. This just shows that Blaise did a wonderful job crafting these characters and this world that we are crying for a bear we met only five minutes ago. It's beautiful, and it's easy to fall in love with this sort of art form all over again. It evokes the empathy out of the viewer, which I think is such a wonderful feeling we have that we need to use more.
On top of the absolutely gorgeous film, the score from Mancina and Espino simply elevates the film so well. The score is phenomenal, evoking that child-like sense of wonder and imagination. It is incredibly reminiscent of a score a Pixar or Disney film would use, and I think that is why it works so well. I hate when a film's (especially a short film's) score is very muted or monotonous. Here, we don't have that problem. The score perfectly swings during the happiest moments of the picture and feels us with sadness during the sad moment of the film, where the bear is drifting out to sea alone. I think the score and the animation work hand-in-hand here, and the movie wouldn't have garnered the same effect without one of these aspects.
Snow Bear is a perfect example of why I love animation so much. This entire short picture feels me with so much joy and excitement, and it is simply such a fun watch. When analyzing films and finding the message within them, it is hard to find time to enjoy what the filmmaker did as well. But here, the film and its message of friendship and loneliness simply come together as a package, entertaining the viewer while also tugging on their heartstrings. This is a masterful animated short film, and one that I will definitely be revisiting.
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