SNAPSHOT
A crosswalk light at a quiet intersection plays games with a businessman who needs to cross it, but doesn’t want to break the law. That’s the simple premise of this hilarious short that most viewers will be able to relate to (unless you’re from New York City, where “Don’t Walk” signs were made to be ignored). How long will his patience last? (synopsis (c) Laughing Place)
To cross or not to cross?
Okay Shakespeare may not have posed this question in one of his illustrious plays but if he had been a resident of the 21st century, he may well have; still with the great bard absent for entirely understandable reasons, it’s up to talented animator Ryan Green to tackle in the first short film of the second season of Disney’s delightful series Short Circuit.
In Crosswalk, which a pits an initially meek-and-mild businessman against a capricious signal to hilarious results – well, if you’re the signal, not so much the stymied commuter – there’s a lot more going than just someone trying to get across the street as Green explains on Indiewire.
“‘I thought about the dilemma of being at a crosswalk and the anxiety of waiting for the light to change with no traffic. It’s about personal freedoms versus social living and I thought about my ancestors and all they went through in coming to this country.
Initially, he conceived of a 2D flashback, but it was too confusing and time-consuming, so he condensed it to an evolutionary framing device. ‘You can argue either way on this topic, and it was a metaphor for my own view on pushing too far on things.'”
The philosophical underpinnings aside, and they’re clearly evident in this inspired piece of pithy animation, Crosswalk is a very clever film that entertains and communicates a lot in a very short period of time.