Watch: Surreal, Extra Wild Hand-Drawn Animated Short ‘Soft Animals’

Watch: Surreal, Extra Wild Hand-Drawn Animated Short ‘Soft Animals’

by Alex Billington
May 31, 2023
Source: Vimeo

So this is what happens when two wild animals encounter each other. Soft Animals is an animated short made by filmmaker Renee Zhan. It’s online to watch after showing at festivals 2021. Zhan’s intro explains it all: “The film is about two people who bump into each other at a train station and all kinds of strange, unexpected, and powerful feelings bubble up to the surface. It’s about the animal / body part of us which is boiling away underneath the awkward banality of small talk. I really wanted to capture that feeling… when you see someone and the rational brain side of you remember all the bad dumb shit, but the inside soft animal BODY part of you is experiencing something completely different and just wants to cuddle up and go to sleep together.” With the voices of Paul Panting & Joanna Ruiz, plus lots of weird sounds / creatures.

Thanks to Vimeo Staff Picks for the tip on this being available online. Very brief synopsis from Vimeo: “Two ex-lovers cross paths at a train station.” Soft Animals is an animated short directed & created by filmmaker Renee Zhan – you can see more of her work on her Vimeo or follow her on IG @ummmrenee. Produced by Jesse Romain; edited by Margred Pryce. Featuring sound design by Ed Rousseau. Renee Zhan explains her inspiration for this: “maybe those sad embarrassing parts of us are the parts we should embrace and that the most interesting work we make might come out of the stupid things we can’t stop thinking and the stupid feelings we can’t stop feeling.” The film premiered at the Annecy, Edinburgh, & Toronto Film Fests in 2021, and it also played at Sundance 2022. For more info, visit Vimeo. To watch more shorts, click here. Thoughts?

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