It’s hard to make a tragedy seem heartwarming, because by definition it sort of isn’t heartwarming at all. But artist Charles Huettner has taken a pretty decent stab at it with his recent animated short entitled The Jump.
Featuring the disembodied spirits of dead people as the fly around, and two children who become inhabited temporarily by an assortment of these spirits, it is quite disturbing. Especially at the end. But the animation is sweet and simple, and the spirits are kind of cute for things that look like used Tampax.
It is deceptively cute looking for its content; you have been warned. It’s going to leave you unsure of how to feel.
Ari Carrington