Something Different

Animated by Anna Rickards & Ruxandra Albulescu

2023

A new colourful animation springs from the region this month with the arrival of Something Different, another short from the Script Sirens’ Spectrum anthology.

We open with a young boy at his desk in school, day-dreaming as he watches the world go by outside his classroom window as trees float and dance ambiguously in front of his eyes.

Despite the fun of playing outside with his friend, the boy looks far more unsure once he is in the gym where an angry PE teacher shakes his fist in the boy’s direction.

With the boy upset and pupils laughing, his bespectacled friend comes to his aid to comfort him, but back in the changing room, his anger spills over once more which results in his parents called to a meeting.

The short is well-animated with plenty of colour and the simplicity of the drawings combined with a more watercolour effect for the background makes the story easy to follow. And without any dialogue, the physical expressions become important and are handled admirably throughout.

A number of possible mental health diagnoses are thrown about the meeting before we see the boy incredibly upset in his room. Later we find that his real condition is Synesthesia – the most common form known as ‘coloured hearing’ with sounds, music or voices seen as colours.

And here the animation is the perfect medium, as the well-constructed creative choices from the filmmaker have him literally becoming invisible and falling away as his world turns to an upsetting, and symbolic, black and white.

And the soundtrack from Midlands Movies Awards nominee Aurora Sunn is not only a joy but subsequently becomes a huge and crucial part of the whole experience too. It moves from intense beats to more subtle lullaby-style melodies. With some echoes of Clint Mansell’s Loving Vincent score too, the music brilliantly covers a huge range of styles in just 3 minutes.

Although the main thread of the film – one in which a child struggles with an undiagnosed medical condition – the animation also touches upon themes of race, sexuality, mental health, the education system and straight-ahead teen angst.

This is done in a tender and informative way and allows each topic to rise when it needs to without obscuring the central issue it’s tackling. Sensitive and encouraging, Something Different is a gentle and unclouded look at a little-known issue but with its uncomplicated and effective animation, it gets across its point in a pleasingly frank and effective short.

★★★★

4/5

Michael Sales