stanley pickle

 Summary

Stanley lives a strict routine with his animatronic parents, whom he turned into robots. He often watches a girl dancing with her bird in the backyard. When the bird dies, Stanley turns it into a robot to cheer her up. However, the girl is frightened by the robotic bird and runs away. Realizing the inhumanity of reviving the dead, Stanley finally lets his parents rest in their graves.

Discussion the director wanted the viewers to have

-being/playing God is not exactly a good thing

-letting go of the past may be much more relieving than you think

Reaction

I thought that this short video was very well shot. It must have been difficult to portray difference in the movements of robots and ones of living humans. The plot was a little difficult to understand but I believe that Stanley was a boy who lost his parents at a young age but could not live on his own; he could not let go of the warmth and comfort his parents brought him. So, he made them into timed robots so he could live the same day-to-day life. This is just my prediction or how I interpreted the video, but because his parents passed away when he was young, he did not learn how he should deal with emotions or what is humane or not. So when he saw the girl grieve over her bird but felt disturbed when he turned it into an animatronic, he was able to see how he "should" have been acting all along. Through her, he was able to see that letting go was the best thing to do, forcing the dead to live wasn't the way to live. Hence, the dance he does in the forest at the end.