The Reward

A nice hommage to friendship. The music is more significant than the story, the adventures are seductive for the fine irony and the map is, basically, the main motif to see , twice, this charming to easy short animation.

This short is one I come back to every year or so. It's playful, goofy and all around a good time. A film without dialog telling the story of two strangers of polar personalities reluctantly joined on a quest by their greed. The majority of the film is a fantasy montage of different obstacles the two must overcome on their quest, with bits of comedy interspersed within the unique fantasy settings. While the journey could be described as a generic fantasy tale with basic elements by some (I'm looking at you Mr.4/10) I think the heart of the film is the relationship of the two adventures and how they grow to trust or distrust one another. Without going into spoilers, this is a heartfelt film about growth and journey that doesn't take itself seriously but still manages to be poignant by the end. It's good fun and worth the ten minutes if you have them to spare.

As a lifelong DND and other tabletop gamer, this felt exactly like the trials and travails of so many characters. Through thick and thin, betrayals and real world fights that get in the way of the adventures. It's all here. I was like, kinda moved to be honest.

This is a fantastic little adventure that people of all ages and languages can enjoy.

In response to the unnecessary and blind 4/10 review posted before this one, what the bloody hell is wrong with you? "Didn't feel connected to the characters." Seriously? It's a 9 minute short film, and yet the characters were fun and entertaining to watch. Whether you feel a connection or not is rather irrelevant in this instance.

It's animation style is rather unique and very colourful. It was a pleasure to watch. 'The Reward' contains humour, satire, simple life lessons, and even spawned a short series.

To give an animation like this such an abhorrent score is wrong. For those of you who are interested in this, please ignore that 4/10 review. Besides, it's 9 minutes long. It is more than worth your while.