Connections between short films

I choose to look into the connections between the short films “Different” and “The Kid” from English class today. Both these pieces are short movies that have received some form of critical acclaim.

One major thematic connection that is shared across the two films is the idea of uniqueness and ‘being different’. In “Different” the movie is about the hidden differences that these two characters have, and how their friendship blooms in spite of not really knowing these differences. In “The Kid”, it has been established that the child in the story, or ‘the kid’, seems to be valuable to the antagonists for some reason. We later learn that this child possesses some sort of power. This explicitly reveals how he is different to the others. This thematic connection reveals how the idea of being different can be communicated through different means and in different styles, proven through the contrast between the naturalistic style of “different” and the non-naturalistic style of “The Kid”. In terms of impact, the plight of all the children in these short movies is communicated to the audience because of the situations they have been put in as a result of their differences, therefore attracting our sympathies towards them.

Both these short movies also lack in major dialogue. Both movies have a small portion of dialogue which are used to create a shift in the pace and development of each story. Though the use of dialogue in both movies is different, because of the use of cliche action movie dialogue in “The Kid”, the lack of dialogue positions the audience to focus more on the expressions and actions of the characters, therefore pushing us to look past speech to further our understandings of the character. The actions of the characters were both particularly significant in their respective contexts in their short movies, as they revealed more about the characters abilities and disabilities.

However, the short movies contrast in tension, energy, colour scheme and style. I’m not getting into this yet because I don’t have time and it wasn’t really part of the task.