BLACK SHEEP BOY - 2019 Animation Short Film

I'm so impressed. This video is amazing. I don't know how I appreciate the creator.

Beautiful message, music, and surpisingly, aesthetic as well once I got use to it.

holy shit that was so good

My take is that he either 1) MC really committed suicide and is already dead, or 2) the very first scene where the girl left him because he was anxious (red in face as seen often later) about the relationship and said something that ruined it was what actually happened. Panels highlighted with yellow show his descent into depression and suicide. When he wakes up with the girl sleeping next to him (and this was also after he 'ascended' with angel wings), it's just his delusion (later character mentions mixing up true happiness and a forced delusion). MC might not realize that he has already died, and is fantasizing about a life where the girl was there, but deep down he knows something is wrong, hence why he goes out to find an answer to his sadness. The cat first tells MC that he will be back before sunset, but the world is neverending nighttime. MC also asks the wise lion how to get home, but the wise lion does not answer this question because the MC either cannot get home or has no home left to begin with. Instead, the wise lion tells a story about the close relationship he had with his dog. After that dog died, he was given a lonely and inferior replacement, the boomerang. This replacement of an inanimate object clearly wouldn't come close to the relationship he had before--but is somewhat similar to how we see MC watering and overwatering a plant during the beginning sequence. He is giving love to an inanimate object but feels hollow inside. Sometimes there is NO replacement for something that has been broken (aka his relationship with the girl). The setting is dark which possibly supports that the MC really did, or is close to, committing suicide because there is also another dog that mentions how he is unable to get the sun to come back. Finally, the 'father' (which could either be his real father or god if he's dead), consoles the MC and says that there is also importance in 'unloving', or learning to let go of things you once held dear. In this case, I think it's referring to the girl again and his death. In the end the MC never returns home either, he just tries to enter into 'sleep' with the dogs.

Anyway that's just my take. There's also a lot of stuff about not knowing your true self and failing to express your emotions while living a lie, like with the tiger and cyclops cat. There is another possible theory; that MC is simply very depressed and is dreaming about breaking up with the girl and eventually committing suicide. He never feels truly happy even with the girl and thus goes out on a journey. But personally, I think him not being able to 'unlove' the girl who left and committing suicide fits best.

It reminds me of UNDERTALE by Toby Fox...

Must have been one hell of a magic mushroom.

I was not good at English, so I barely understood what it was about, but... It would have been the same if there were subtitles...

so many things related to my childhood and even now. in the end this animation has no answer but as it reflects how my life have been past like a mirror, it soothes my negative inside. and hope one day i can find someone who can rely on. or can rely by myself at the end...

A man who lost conscience got unfamiliar to himself, to his life.. his puzzle of life no longer makes sense to him. He also lost intuition and trust into his natural feelings. So his Odyssee is getting more and more absurd.
What remains is a man who is lost in a non-connected something..

This was such a sad, thought-provoking, and also kind of creepy story. The way it makes your skin crawl just with weird imagery and sound design made me remember the (un?)famous web series "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared". However, the themes here are completely different. I actually caught up some of the themes reading the comment section (always trust Gobelins fans to tell you what the hell is going on), but in retrospect, it seems obvious. That desire to go back to how things once were, and how that motivation unavoidably leads us further away from the place we're already in. The Lion's tale at the end was heartbreaking, and the metaphor of the boomerang (basically a stick that comes back to you whether you have a dog or not) being that which you wish for, but without having the soul of that which you long for. It's just empty.
And how he comes back to that... poultry-yard, where he can just "pretend to be where he wants to be". I guess a lot of our existence as human beings might end up like that. Longing for something which cannot be attained. And what's so great about the short is how almost every character he encounters in the journey is basically also longing for something, or changed beyond a point of no return, like the Cyclocat.

This was one of the deepest shorts I've seen in Gobelins. I'm glad to know the tradition continues, and that every once in a while a student comes up with a concept that is both mind-blowing and emotionally resonant. A Masterpiece to me :')

wah mais c génial, c'est super original, comment est-ce que c'est fait? C'est un choix esthetique l'effet console ou genre vous l'avez vraiment fait sur une console? Bref c trop stylé, la fin me rend un peu triste

I'm really in love with the flowers, i don't know what it is about them but I just love how they look

this is one of the most touching and weirdly charming animations i've seen. This truly is something special. Sad that the art style did not gathered so much attention although it fits the story very well.



I also see some undertale fans involved in this project I believe.

this film made me cry a lot

This really hit in a very emotionally sore spot for my partner and I, this is just.. amazing. I haven't cried this hard over an animation in a long time.
Bless video game art, this gives me some Undertale vibes.

I love how this short utilizes a retro game format to convey such an emotional narrative. The simple graphics paired with the scarce, vague dialogue contrast with the somber, reflective tone so well. The whole short gives me this feeling of stagnancy despite the boys continuous movement. The part where he talks with his dad and mentions how he had just seen his girlfriend, but he already had forgotten her face... it’s like time moves by so fast but also so slowly, like it’s unmeasurable and not enough and too much all at once. And when you see the camera pan up and the moon has been replaced by the earth, showing just how far he is from where he started, it doesn’t give you a sense of accomplishment, doesn’t make the audience feel satisfaction that he’s made it this far. For me, at least, it gave me this disoriented, anxious feeling. It’s subtle, it’s not mentioned, but it’s there, hanging over him. So close he can see it but he can never go back. He can never touch it because it’s a different place from how it was when he started off. It’s not his world anymore. It’s a pinprick. I think this whole short amazingly conveys loss, true loss, it’s empty bleakness and the gentle surrender we all have to succumb to. To accept that loss and move forward, adapt, adjust.

The whole time I kept waiting for him to come home to her. It’s the Hero’s Journey layout after all. A common literary plot where the hero’s normal life is disrupted, they go on a quest to fix this problem, they may or may not fix it, but the real goal is they learn more about themselves. Then, they go home, but they are changed so they may perceive home differently, or at least appreciate it in a new light.
This turns that totally on its head but in the most alarming way. It’s alarming because it’s subtle. You keep expecting him to go home, you keep waiting. But in the end he stays lost. When the credits started rolling it filled me with this sort of angry sadness. Because it’s so disappointing, and he can do nothing about it, and I can do nothing about it, but that is how life often goes. I love how the creators of this subvert our expectations by using this formatting. Classic retro quest, but then the objective points become less and less clear. Love how it starts fairly linear, but then they use different perspectives to really mimic the feeling of a maze. It’s this building tension of how far he’ll go down the rabbit hole, and then the disappointment that his end goal doesn’t help him whatsoever.
I think this was a way of showing that our own unique experiences are so complicated that there is no possible way to stick to a “format” to life. The whole video game setting symbolizes society’s (or even an individual’s) idea of what is deemed the “correct” way of living life. The boy even says in the beginning how he thinks he’s not good at life, or something like that. This mindset is shown to be flawed when the boy can’t seem to stick to it, when he gets lost.

I just really loved this a lot and wanted type out my thoughts. On a lighter note, despite the implications in the story, the sun will always come up in the morning. People will love you and they will leave and you will never get to go back to that warm safe place you first thing of when you read this, but the beauty in that is that you have the power to make new experiences, new memories. One day you will find a new place to call your home, and the joy you will feel when you do will far outweigh the hurt you felt when you lost your last one.

This feels like a fever dream and I love it

This reminds me of The Wizard of Oz (only a computerized version).

oh god hes dead isnt he

I do not understand! I am lost in this video!

I wish this had Spanish cc :/ I want to show it to my friends

The cyclocat was the saddest part for me, paying the price of sight through pain. It has lost its blind ignorance but is gratified to finally be able to see the truth of the world, no matter how horrible. I think the cat represented the MC; he was desperate to find answers (to his anxiety, maybe) and hurt himself in the process (caused by the breakup and inevitably led to his downfall, which is death).

I am a victim of domestic child abuse, and having your innocence stolen at such a young age is mortifying. At the age of 6, I wasn't stupid, I knew when I was being abused. I never spoke up, however, and my abusers are still criminal record free and can still contact me. The trauma matured me and made me grow up too fast, that's not a good thing. I was too young when I was exposed to the cruel reality of this damn planet. I wish I could live like my fucking age. This is the first time I've ever opened up about this, and I don't know if I feel better or not :)

There's lots of talk of it's melancholy (which I certainly feel), but the humor? "And my parents bought me a boomerang..." I laughed pretty hard there. It's a sad moment, with an even sadder irony. In the end, nothing is even concluded.

Not even Oz can take you home when there’s no such thing as a ruby slipper.

The ‘Earthbound 0 / Mother’ style of this short really fits and theme and tone. Just so well done.

This is dope. I need more.

I saw this as a screener for a film festival in 2019 and have been looking for it ever since!! It's stuck with me more than any other film I've screened

I keep coming back to this short film.
There is something odd about it. It somehow contains all the dark, lonely, and depressing feelings but at the same time is oddly comforting.

is his girlfriend dead?

Why did the cyclops cat part make me cry what is wrong with me

This got me feeling all sorts of sad ;-;;; powerful storytelling!

Even though the description says that the boy is searching for happiness, I believe the film is about the boy learning to let go of his overwhelming sadness. He is his own black sheep. After committing suicide, he journeys through purgatory (literal soul-searching) to get an answer.

1/5: boy has a nightmare
That is reality, his never-ending nightmare. He got into a fight with his girlfriend (lvl1), couldn't handle the loud intrusive thoughts (lvl2), couldn't cope (taking a deep breath but also roaring at himself at lvl3), invested excess effort that is ultimately futile (overwatering his plant at lvl4), and thus committed suicide. The boy and his girlfriend's argument is in glyph because when all's said and done he can't even remember what it was all about. The plant, his emotional attachment/burden, also grew bigger and bigger.

"I'm not good at living my life" and "I don't know how to be happy" are indications that he's unhappy and has been for a long time. It's a loop he's trapped in till he finds an answer.

"You'll be back before sunset" Why sunset? Why not sunrise? Because a new day will never come. He's trapped in a loop of his own making. He will never live to see the next day.

I also like how Wittgenstein and Heidegger were mentioned. The former believes in mysticism, the latter's studies the state of "being in the world", thus the magical realism setting and the surreal existence of the Wise Lion (note how several times his statue and picture were present, but were not him in person). The boy is also stuck somewhere in the middle; he is no longer a part of the world, even if he's venturing the middle ground for answers.

2/5: boy leaves home
In his journey, the first thing he leaves behind is his dog (and eventually his girlfriend). That will be the start of the many things he'll need (and learn) to leave behind, however unwilling and painful it is. The black cat is the part of himself that drives him to find answers, the kickstarter.

3/5: boy arrives elsewhere
The scenery changes from blue to purple. It's progress, he's no longer stuck in a reality that isn't real.

The red tiger is the many fragmented parts of him. It's anxious and irrational. But it is also his principle (I want men and women to be as equal as the sides of a parallelogram), his kindness (Let's walk together, okay?), and his struggles (I struggle with the fact that others are truly unknowable) (Is there even a real me? Or am I always playing a character?) (I don't think much anymore) (I used to be happy before learning the word delusional) which includes not knowing what his girlfriend is thinking, feeling empty, losing his sense of self and happiness after realising that it was a delusion.

Also it's interesting how it said "But he's on his way home" for the Wise Lion, which really was the case at the end.

The whole computer thing was the boy searching up answers to no avail. Nobody said the process is easy.

4/5: boy is lost
The scenery reverts from purple to blue. All progress is lost and the boy is back to square 1.

The cyclocat is the repressed part of himself. It bottled up all its emotions and became blind to reason, hence why it tried to attack the boy (For the first time, all of my emotions are coming out. Before you stabbed me in the eye, I was blind.) However, even after releasing its pent-up emotions, it clearly still haven't learnt to let go, as it asked to keep the drawing of the girlfriend that may not even be accurate.

The dog hates the night and wants the sun to come back, hence resorting to unrealistic and tedious methods like turning all the sunflowers. But at least it realises how foolish the action is. That symbolises the next step to the boy's progress. "I just close my eyes and pretend I'm somewhere I want to be" which leads to his father comforting him, because he wants guidance and solace. "There's a strength to unloving" is the perfect way to tell the boy to let go, to stop loving the girl who left him, to put down the burden that's causing him sadness.

5/5: the wise lion
The boy enters a cemetery. It's for the Wise Lion, sure, but it's also for him. He's dead. And he got his answer. The Wise Lion doesn't tell him how to get back home, because he can't, but it tells him a story about its most precious dog. The boomerang may reenact the fetching, but it can't bring back the close bond it had with its dog. So it lives in sadness till it eventually dies and reunite with its dog. It has another dog butler, it even gained a good reputation, but the Wise Lion is still sad. Similarly, the boy lost the relationship with his girlfriend and lives in sadness till he commits suicide not coming to terms with his loss. Until he learns to let go and can finally go in peace.

that's my interpretation :')

Why is this film so underrated? It’s one of the most emotional and psychological films I have ever watched

This was so good it deserved more views. My roommate and I watched it just for fun and clicked on it and now we are both sad but we thought it was such a beautiful short.

I didn't really feel emotional from this which is rare for me. But I did really appreciate the style and the sound design is perfect

i keep coming back to this..

I friggin love the sound effects

I could smell the anti-static wrapper my first computer came in as I was watching this. It had 256K of memory. They even got the load time right between scenes in this short film.

As others said, the story of loss, discovery and memory is very well told here. I do not think the little boy has been invited to "sleep" for only a night in that grassy yard.

I remember a girlfriend I had when I was young. We were together when she was in grad school for art. Such a creative time. There is no way to go back in time and eventually our memories are lost when we leave if not told to some other human being. Eventually life ends just as surely as programs would halt in those old computers before hard drives when the switch was turned to 'off'. For many my age a first encounter with mortality.

really wish there was a soundtrack for this short

that piano piece at the end resembles the dutch national anthem too closely lol

The piano score at the end is « All Glory Be To Christ »

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Y'all are way beyond beautiful.
☀

The music at the end is "ce n'est qu'un au revoir" meaning "it's only a goodbye". Beautiful

This has to be the saddest Gobelin animation

Un exceptionnel banger, diablement sous-coté.

This is incredible holy fuck

rewatching this every few months genuinely still makes me sob every time.

what the fuck

BEST!

"how do i go home"
the wise lion: ✌️