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.
