Animated short The Present delivers touching message

Posted January 2021

By Farhiya Mohammed

Cub Reporter

In the 2014 German short film The Present, a boy's mom brings home a present for him, a type of dog that wasn’t what he expected or what he wanted—at first.

When she sets the present on the table, she opens the blinds to let light in. The boy was sitting in a dark room playing video games. The film is absent of music at this point, showing us that he was lonely. It's obvious he's an only child in a quiet house. The reason his mom bought him a puppy was probably because she didn’t want him to feel isolated.

The dog, it turns out, has a disability.

The boy was surprised, but because of the disability he doesn't want anything to do with it. He acts cold to the dog and pushes him away. The dog finds a ball anyway and starts to play with it on his own. Cheerful music starts to play with this scene to show that, even with a disability, this puppy is able to experience joy. It's inspiring that each time the dog falls and stumbles, he gets back up and enjoys playing with the ball again. The boy notices this, and in the end we learn that the boy has something in common with the puppy.

It doesn’t make sense as to why the boy treats the puppy so poorly at first. Although, towards the very end, he seems to be influenced by the dog. Perhaps he was unfriendly to the dog was because it reminded him of himself. When we are unalike from others, we tend to not see it as a good thing. Most of the time, being considered different makes us feel as if we don’t fit in.