Faculty of Art

Experimental Animation

Sam Imbrogno

1. Or, The Whale

Or, The Whale is a three-minute animated short film that explores themes of parental pressures and self betrayal through a combination of 2D digital animation and paper cutout background pieces. The story follows the young son of a whale hunter as he struggles to navigate the conflict between his own adoration of whales and his father’s contradictory expectations.

“Or, The Whale is a two-minute animated short film that explores themes of parental pressures and self betrayal through a combination of 2D digital animation and paper cutout background pieces. The story follows Rico, the 11-year-old son of a whale hunter, as he struggles with how his father’s expectations conflict with his own admiration of whales, eventually finding himself trapped in a demanding ultimatum. Inspired by the literary imagery of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, this film recontextualizes my own experience with familial tensions that stem from my decision to pursue my artistic passions in place of my parents’ preferred career path. At its heart, the film is about animation itself and represents my long standing, frequently disputed love for the practice as a medium of self-exploration. Amplified by the cartoon-reminiscent animation style and the craft-like background materials, the film is made to honour the child who initiated my relationship with animation and continued creating in spite of the external pressures.”