Draw with Me (2009): Short Film Review

Hey guys! So today I bring you a short animation treat you may already know of… or maybe not. I wanted to share this with you, because this is one of my favorite shorts ever.  I found it on Facebook years ago, and it was so cute I loved it. The original video by Mike Inel didn’t have the background music, but the updated version does and it makes the experience a lot better to enjoy. I love its simplicity in plot and display, having this sketchy sort of style and how even though the animation was mostly colorless it had sudden bursts of color on the background. Also the detail of the animal ears and tails added more to the cuteness factor of the short film along with the anime-like drawing style. Yup this animation represents a lot of things I love in one. It deals with being so close yet so far from the one you love, representing something similar to a long distance relationship. Like when you are with your significant other, both of you at different ends of the world and you see each other through a webcam on Skype. It’s like having them in front of you, but they really aren’t at the same time. Then you start feeling really sad because it’s not the same as having them next to you in person.

The story begins with a boy with long animal ears and a tail, walking towards a very long glass barrier. He then notices a girl who also has animal ears and a tail. He runs towards her and tries to talk to her, but she can’t hear him so she takes out some black charcoal (?) to write on the glass barrier. He throws her a piece of charcoal for her to write as well. So they spend their time drawing and writing on the glass, then suddenly they start to really like each other as the time goes by. The boy places his hand on the glass and so does she, he gets really sad because he can’t actually feel her hand on his. He tells the girl he wants to be with her to with she replies ”You are with me, only there’s a glass between them”. The boy gets up and starts punching the glass in frustration, the girl tries to give him a warning about the glass but he doesn’t listen. He manages to break the glass but then it begins to fix itself with in turn hurts the boys hand.  The next day the boy is wearing a cast on his arm (don’t ask me the logic of where he got this), the girl asks if he wants to draw with her and he writes that he can’t anymore because of his injured arm. After a while the girl appears wrapped with a blanket and with a small gift box on the boy’s side of the barrier (again don’t ask for the logic). When he opens it he sees something very shocking that makes him drop the box, the girl writes ‘Draw With Me” on the glass. The last image we see is a hand coming out from the box, so we can asume she may have cut off her hand so he could draw with her. A pretty dark twist for a very cute animation.

What’s not to love about this animation, excluding the moments where they just didn’t care for logical explanations? I love it’s simplicity, the contrast to how colorless the world was before they met to how the colors and the snow seemed to glow around them as they got emotionally attached. Also who doesn’t love a surprise ending or the anime-style everything has? A very concise yet powerful plot that we can somehow relate to what the character were going through, whether its with a long distance relationship or just having a loved one very far away from you and feeling no matter what you do yo can’t find a way to be closer to each other. It’s one of the worst feelings in the world, believe me.

The video is very popular, I’ve seen it again and again on Facebook, and so far it has 2,667,337 views on YouTube which is amazing and very well-deserved. Mike Inel really did an amazing story, so good it even has a ”sequel” though it has no audio and it’s not really set in the same world as this one.

Well I hope you guys enjoyed this review. Also if you are going through a hard time with distance, someone once told me that ”Distance only a test to see how strong love really is”. Sometimes it doesn’t work because it really does get difficult, but if you’re lucky it will last and then you will be able to finally be together. If you’re in a Long Distance relationship, I wish you the very best. Have a nice day!

I rate this 5/5