When the Day Breaks (1999)

Tilby and Forbis' short film uses animalised characters making it an allegory of everyday urban life.
The film starts with a rooster eating toast, after watching him butter it we see a mid-shot of the animal, who is quite clearly meant to represent a man. From the mise-en-scene of the braces, the wrinkles under his eyes and the old-fashioned glasses we can tell that he is meant to represent an old man. The fact that he's been animalised sets the film up to be a children's cartoon however, from the fact that the colour scheme is so worn out and dull, we can conclude that this will be a more serious portrayal of life that isn't as vibrant as a children's cartoon would be. As the film continues, we see a mid-shot of two rodents smoking, this feels uncomfortable to watch because as a society it is deemed wrong for animals to smoke. The fact that these rodents represent humans, forces the audience to explore the idea of smoking being wrong for all animals, including humans.
By examining the way we respond to urban life being played out by animals, Tilby and Forbis have shown how unnatural human behaviour really is and shows that we have lost nature in today's urban life.

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