Henry is a little lost.
My project is a short VFX film revolving around a toy, named Henry, who wakes up lost and with a dangerously low battery. He struggles through the obstacles and dangers of the city in an attempt to take refuge at a ‘Toy Lab’. Henry fights to beat the clock but his journey takes a turn after he finds himself in a dangerous situation. The story stems from the idea of being thrown into the deep end of adulthood and feeling like time will run out before you get to the place you think you need to be.
Henry is a symbolic display of starting the journey of adulthood and explores what anthropomorphism can do to change perspective and how that adds to the emotional engagement of the story.
My main goal for this project was to create a story that captures an audience through narrative and character design. I was very interested in the idea of how a human specific experience or emotion can be expressed through another channel but still consumed the same way. I loved how you can take the story as surface level, a robot adventure, or think of what emotion or experience influenced this film. I wanted anyone watching this to enjoy it and not take it too seriously, but at the same time feel a connection to Henry’s struggles and root for him to succeed.
Although my project has gone through many iterations since day one, the root of the story has always remained the same - it’s about growing up. Henry aims to depict the feelings of being dropped in the deep end of adulthood and working towards the obvious goals, even though it might not be where you actually end up.
