Aardman and Save the Children have released a new short film to highlight the experiences of refugee children around the world.
The film, called ‘Home’, has been created as an education tool to help primary school age children understand what it’s like to be have been displaced, how they can make friends with refugee children and welcome them at school. Through this partnership, both organisations will raise awareness about their work.
Why this works
The five minute film is delightful – do give it a watch by clicking on the YouTube video above.
You’ll see that there’s no dialogue, meaning that the story is accessible to children and adults of any age and who speak any language – the animation transcends language barriers and cultures, offering universal appeal.
Through gesture and expression alone, the film sensitively shares how refugees can feel in their new home and environment – and what people can do to welcome displaced people to help alleviate feelings of being an outsider.
The animation uses shapes and colours to represent the different characters and background landscape/environment. Viewed on an individual basis these characters aren’t identifiable as having a particular ethnicity, culture, country or region. Together, the various shapes and colours illustrate a diverse and vibrant society.
There’s a positive and optimistic tone overall, while acknowledging the tragic events that led our refugee character from having to flee their home country.
The film’s outro ends with “Together we can shape a brighter world that’s home to everyone”, which ties everything together well – it finishes on a positive note that invites everyone to create a welcoming environment and home.
Learnable moment
Animation can be a great storytelling format, particularly when communicating sensitive messages – how could you use animation in a client project?
Thanks to Ben Veal at Second Mountain Comms for alerting me to this lovely animation via LinkedIn.
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