Don't Hug Me I'm Scared - Short Film Analysis

 "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared" is a well-known short film by This is It. It begins looking like your average kid's show - puppets talk to a notepad who's teaching them how to be creative. However, it quickly turns dark, with said puppets covering hearts in glitter, making cakes out of gore, and spelling out death. This video has tons of dark, hidden meanings, mostly about children's media, and how it is too controlling.

The main characters sitting around the table

The first thing I want to discuss is the use of tropes generally used in children's media - the music was happy(until it turned dark), there were the characters learning about creativity, it was educational, teaching one how to be creative, everything any good children's program requires. This is part of the reason as to why I believe this is a criticism of children's media.

The infamous notepad's hair

A major sign of the control of children's media is when the notepad discusses its hair. It says that "I use my hair to express myself", but when Harry(the red guy) says that "that sounds really boring", the notepad just repeats itself, almost like Harry can't have his own opinion. In a similar vein, Manny, the human, paints a clown and says his favorite color is green, but is told he is wrong both times, when the notepad says "Woah there, friend, you might need to slow down," and that "Green is not a creative color". This is commentary on the way that children's media tells children to be creative, but controls their creativity.

The characters as adults

The final note I want to make is the part where the video become CGI for a moment, turns the camera around, and then returns to live-action/puppetry, but the characters are larger. This part represents the aging of the children. They no longer have someone there to tell them what to do, indicated by the disappearance of the notepad, but they are still being "creative". They are taking their new creative freedom too far, though, and it's turned creepy. This shows how the controlled creativity can be wrong, making the children sick and go almost crazy with power once they age and gain freedom.

Through a silly video, This Is It showed thousands of people how controlled creativity can damage our children. Please comment on what you think!

Children - Short Film Analysis

"Children" is a Japanese 3D CG animation by Takuya Okada that serves to criticize the public school system and how it hurts, rather than helps the children in it.  This is one of my favorite videos out there, and I feel as though it's very deep and has hidden meaning besides what is explicitly shown. I recommend watching the video first, because there are spoilers below and an analysis only truly makes sense once you know what the author is talking about.

One of the titular children, and the main character.

The first note I'm going to make is on the choice of the music - Chopin's Funeral March. Music is a major part of setting the tone of anything, and this was a very appropriate choice for the video that was chosen. It goes along not only with the death motif that shows up throughout, but also with the theme of the whole video - the idea that everyone is just another cog in the machine. The song doesn't change much either. There aren't crescendos or the like, symbolizing how everyday is just the same.

The idea that everyone is just another cog in the machine is most apparent with the children. Each one is virtually identical, the only difference being the number that was branded on their forehead. However, the same goes for the teachers, assuming that two show up in the video - the physical education teacher, and the classroom teacher. Both have the exact same mask on. This symbolizes not only the idea that the school, the government, anyone who's in charge truly cares who you are, but that if you're not part of a certain group, the group doesn't care either. Because the teachers are different and older than the children, the children don't care about their individuality. The masks the teachers wear are always smiling, because that's the facade that is presented - that everything is fine and nothing can go wrong. However, the teachers don't truly feel this way, but if they let on that anything is wrong, they're just troubling the children.

It's interesting how only one character is truly an individual at any point in the film is number 4483. Even when the children rebel against society and the school, they do it simultaneously. 4483 breaks his zipper, and then every other child does it too, all at the same time. As they run out of the school and down the streets, they are still in one large group. Even once we are freed from the shackles of sameness, our similarities continue to control us, forcing us to constantly follow each other.

I find it very interesting that the only person who has a voice in the whole video was 4483, and that was just laughing. He is finally free, and then is killed while exercising said freedom. That's most likely saying that people get too excited about freedom, and that freedom is dangerous. Okada is most likely telling us that there needs to be a balance between freedom and control, liberty and security, or whatever you want to call it.

The dog symbolizes 4483's hopes and dreams, to be free. Everyday, he watches the dog, his hope, die, but once he frees himself and can follow his dream, he dies. However, the dog doesn't die, which could mean that his ideals will live on, maybe even inspire others to do what he wanted.

"Children" not only discusses how the public school system can hurt children, but also how people aren't individuals and how dangerous freedom can be. The ideas presented in this video should be appreciated and used to change our world for the better.