(9/10) | Jensen Golez, September 1, 2017
Patience is not required. In only 5 minutes, Disney/Pixar animator Rodrigo Blaas creates a misleadingly cheery moment, rises to a somber crescendo and leaves viewers dangling in disturbance. This 2009 animated short from Spanish director Blaas is now a legend of industry badminton, as Blaas created the piece entirely in his own time and not under the auspices of his studio. Several friends independently contributed the score, sound design, 3-D CGI animation, character design and editing. Now, Alma is in development with Dreamworks as a feature-length expansion of the grim story that was an Internet sensation upon Blaas’ late 2009 limited release via Vimeo.
Alma is one of the good short films I have seen in a while. It has an interesting story although it is very disturbing and eerie. The film centers on a young girl who gets lured into an enchanted toy store, drawn in by its beautiful collection of dolls, including one that looks just like her. She discovers only too late that the shop is nefariously intent on adding her to its permanent collection.
The film starts with a young girl named Alma wearing winter clothes wandering along a creepy alleyway during a cold and snowy day. She encounters a wall with names of various children, she then writes her own name along with the others. Startled by a noise behind her, she turns around and discovers a doll, on display in a shop window that looks identical to her. Curious, she tries to enter the shop only to find that the door is locked. Frustrated, Alma throws a snowball at the door. Thinking the shop is closed, Alma begins to walk away before the door suddenly opens. Alma enters the store. As Alma walks in, she is presented with shelves filled with dolls. Elated, she notices the doll of herself on a table. Walking towards it, she trips over a small toy of a boy riding a bicycle. The toy pedals across the floor and heads to the exit but the door closes before the toy can escape. Alma starts to climb a shelf to reach the doll. The moment she touches the doll, she finds herself looking at the shop below from the doll’s perspective. Unable to move and trapped, Alma notices all of the other dolls whose eyes blink back at her. A different doll is immediately raised in the shop’s display window to attract another child victim, restarting the cycle.
From watching this short film, one can see that there are indeed a number of conventions similar to that which are commonly seen in a typical short film.
To start, it is evident that there is only one character throughout the entire film, Alma, whom the short story revolves around. This supports the notion that in a short film, there is normally only one protagonist. Furthermore, the employment of sound has been used very effectively in the sense that it is used not only as diegetic background music but also to show and convey the emotion and reactions of the little girl Alma. For example, when Alma sees the doll which reflects herself in the shop window, the music becomes a bit alarming and eerie to convey a sense of shock towards the audience.
Another reason as to why music is so important is because at the beginning of the animation, it is the music which effectively is used to immediately indicate that the setting/place is in France due to the sort of music which is played; a traditional French styled composure. Also, the film depends completely on music throughout since there is not a single line of dialogue therefore music, sound effects and visuals are heavily relied upon.
Keeping on the subject of the visuals, this has played a key role throughout the whole film as we learn a number of things through this means. For example, at the beginning of the short film “Alma”, we learn of the protagonists name when the young girl writes her name on the window due to the absence of dialogue and any side characters to state it for us. The use of the brief focus on the small boy doll on the bike is also of great importance too as the doll repeatedly trying to get out of the shop but continuously bumping into the closed door symbolizes the idea that Alma is actually in danger and needs to get out of the shop herself. The composition of her when she is in the doll on the shelf surrounded by other dolls also conveys the idea that she is also stuck within this self-representing doll. Lastly, we learn at the end of the short film through visuals that there is in fact a twist to the whole story as another doll portraying a young child magically appears in the same place that Alma’s doll appeared and we also see the wall in which Alma wrote her name. Here, as the camera zooms out, the audience realizes that all the other names which can be seen actually belong to children who had followed the exact same steps as Alma and are trapped inside doll version of themselves as well.
“Alma” further shows that it sticks to the short film conventions as it is a ‘short’ film (lasting 5:30 minutes) and that it is an animation proves to show that it crosses the boundaries into animation rather than being a real-life performance.
To finish, the moral of this story simply plays and revolves around the proverb “curiosity killed the cat” meaning no good ever comes out from involving one’s self in unnecessary things, as has been clearly portrayed by Alma. And this is another convention which has been adhered to in terms of what can be seen in short films as “Alma” focuses on the one plot/idea; the proverb.
In my opinion, Alma is a good story for its own genre; horror and suspense. I find it intriguing the first time I watched it, predicting what is going to happen next. The scene where she almost touches the doll, gave it the most suspenseful feeling throughout the film. The plot was very amusing yet horrific. I was stunned of what the film turned out to be for I thought it was going to have a colorful story as most short films usually have. It is not just the story that I enjoyed, I also admired the animation style which was done all by the animator himself. I also enjoyed it as a silent film where Alma doesn’t say a word yet the film was still understandable and lastly the music throughout the film was amazing, it gave the film a more suspenseful feeling.
If I were given a chance to rate the short film, I would give it a score of 9/10. The short film was not the best nor the perfect short film. It was very close to be the perfect short film but it was still very entertaining to watch.
In conclusion, Alma is one of the good short films to watch out there, the animator did a marvelous job in creating this film and releasing it to the public for everyone to watch. I hope the animator creates similar short films just as this one or even entirely new short films for us to enjoy. I really enjoyed watching this amusing yet horrific short film. It is not recommended for children to watch even though it is an animated film because it can create fear unto them but I recommend it to watch to people who are interested in horror and suspense films.
The Short Film Channel 