PRINCESS <br> (Ethan Clarke | 7:05 | Animation) - Rooftop - Blogs

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(Ethan Clarke | 7:05 | Animation)

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PRINCESS
(Ethan Clarke | 7:05 | Animation)

By Rooftop Films on 09/13/2008

Filed under: Animation, Watch Short Films

The story of an unbreakable friendship between a woman and her cat. We need them. Do they really need us?

The pets that we share our life with make some interesting companions. They grow with us, and maybe even understand us better than we can understand ourselves. In Ethan Clarke's short film, we see an old woman and the relationship she shares with her cat Princess--love, respect, and camaraderie. Princess does not act differently because the woman is in her old age, as her son does, but remains a steady attendant and partner, and provides a way to ease the loneliness and fear of death that, perhaps, a human could not. This film takes a strange turn to expose how deeply we care for our pets, and how committed they can be to us, through to the very end.

This film screened as part of our Dark Toons Animated Shorts program on Saturday, September 13th on the roof of the Old American Can Factory. There are few restrictions on subject matter for this program--these animated shorts include cute animals like Princess that turn out to be deadly, dungeons and vengeful toys, worlds made of dreams where angels and devils battle, and expanses of nothingness. That's the magic of animation: it can warp your mind and get under your skin, but great cartoons are complex, and the films in this program flip from comic to calamitous, from heartbreaking to hilarious, all with a unique agility available only in animation.

Does this little film make you want to buy a kitty?

Tags: companions, Dark Toons, Ethan Clarke, Old American Can Factory, old woman, pets, Princess, September 13th show