Seminar 1: Visual Analysis Exercise

Bottle and The Dog Who Was a Cat Inside both came out in the 2000s, albeit quite a few years apart, respectively in 2010 and 2002. Bottle was created by CALarts student Kirsten Lepore from Los Angeles, California, while The Dog Who was a Cat Inside was done by Siri Melchior, a danish animator from Copenhagen, Denmark. And so Bottle is the more recent of the two animations.

Bottle focuses on the long distance relationship between two fairly different creatures (With one composed of warm sand while the other of snow), and by not actually having the chance to meet with one another until the very end, the little gifts they would receive from the other perhaps hints at their belief to alter their appearances to satisfy the other’s expectations for when the time came for them to see one another.

The title for Siri Melchior’s piece, with the usage of the word “was” (Instead of “had”, which would imply something else altogether) already suggests that the message behind its story is the identity issues the main character/s faces, and that it is in fact just one individual that suffer from split personality, or even transgender issues.

While not actually dark in terms of its storytelling, Bottle does give off a far more somber tone as compared to The Dog Who Was a Cat Inside, with its lack of music and its rather sad (But still considerably open) ending. One would assume that the two perished upon entering the sea, hence never getting the chance to meet with one another, while it could also be assumed that the two simply became a part of the sea and hence were finally able to join together as one, discarding their physical forms whilst doing so.

Comparing to Bottle’s ending then, The Dog Who Was a Cat Inside clearly had the happier ending, as the character/s was/were able to find a kindred spirit in the end and accept themselves for what they are (Allowing both personas to get along with one another). And as mentioned earlier, it has an overall more light-hearted and humorous tone of storytelling compared Bottle, with its more colourful and cartoony style and whimsical soundtrack (Which is most definitely an aspect that makes a huge difference to any animation, film, video game, etc.).

Both shorts do seem to focus on the subject matter of identity, though on considerably different levels and areas of it, Bottle seems to focus on identity through peer pressure while The Dog Who Was a Cat Inside focuses on a more different psychological aspect of it. Regardless, both animations were perhaps made to be more open to interpretation, so that they would be more presentable to a wider audience. This especially applies to The Dog Who Was a Cat Inside, if it truly had been focusing on a considerably sensitive subject such as the acceptance of transgender; it had to be made in a way that it is not too obvious or offensive for its audience.

While both animated shorts can be enjoyed by a wide audience, The Dog Who Was a Cat Inside will perhaps be better enjoyed for its cute and quirky presentation and overall more light-hearted tone of storytelling.