Rob Munday

A film about the importance of friendships, Supinfocom grad film Stuffed hopes to help children and adults see how the support of others is vital when you’re feeling overwhelmed or misunderstood. Winner of the Best Student Project award at Siggraph 2019, this seven-minute, dialogue-free film employs a cute stop motion-style to tell a universal story, with some dark undertones.

After a somewhat bleak opening, which introduces both its feline protagonist and their problems, Stuffed follows its troubled lead as they embark on a journey of self-discovery, with the aid of a ukelele playing giraffe. On the lam, after a spot of jealousy leads to an explosive outburst, resulting in a friend having the stuffing knocked out of them, this story of literal inner demons is a warning to all about the need to control your emotions.

Sporting a charming stop-motion style aesthetic, this 3D animation sells its world of stuffed creatures through some textured character design and off-kilter animation (the giraffe’s walk is my fav. moment in the film!). To create this “naive” feel to the production, the team tried to animate “straight ahead” as much as they could, avoiding returning to things later to refine them. “It was important that the animation did not look too perfect, smooth, and computer-generated”, Elise Simoulin explains as we discuss the craft of Stuffed.

Short of the Week has always been driven through a love of the format and all it can achieve in such a short duration. Personally, though my own obsession dates back almost 20-years, I never thought I’d be using short film as a way to initiate discussions with my children, but that’s exactly what happened with Stuffed (and also happened earlier in 2019 with Purl). Following a chat with my seven-year-old son about the importance of controlling our emotions, I realised he might react more favourably to a conversation after a screening of this film and it worked. We watched, we laughed (the giraffe’s walk was his fav. bit as well) and we talked.

One day I’ll learn how to parent my kids the old fashioned way, but from now on they’ll be learning all of life’s lessons through the world of short film (recommendations gratefully received!).