Meow

This precious rarity of a film here in Brazil is a pure delight of creativity which awakens reactions and generate plenty of food for thought with its combination of animation and thought-provoking topic to deal with. And I was shocked to see that it got an award and a nomination for the Cannes Film Festival back in 1982 in the Short category. Animations are quite rare in Brazil (specially back then, early 1980's) and this one certainly conquered my heart and mind and I loved every minute of it. First-time director Marcos Magalhães had a fantastic idea, simple in its execution but very deep when it comes to presenting a message to viewers around the world.

"Meow" presents a poor hungry cat who meows while staying on the top of a brick wall demanding for food and attention. A distant hand brings him some milk, of which he drinks and slurps but when he finishes it he demands for more. He gets more milk, same procedure as before and it repeats for a while until the man with the hand seems to strike a menacing act, a confusion ensues with his wife (but we never see them) and he comes back to the cat...this time serving him with a bowl of soda. You read that right, he gives a beverage to the cat. The cat hates it at first but demands more - probably expecting for the milk's return but he's given soda again...to which he burps. Then comes the man presenting a TV screen to the cat, showing a commercial starring a sexy female cat becoming the main star of the soda brand. The rest I'll leave it up in the air.

What "Meow" does is to throw its critcism on society's consumerism and how people react or adapt when given new things to buy and consume. Here, the poor cat is given what he likes (milk) and always demands for more, then it all changes when he's given soda, of which he initially hates but he gets used to it. And I don't wanna ruin the experience for what happens next but I guess you get the picture of someone who is a product of his environment, growing up to the things he likes, somehow who doesn't want change but when things change little by little he's influenced by the people around him, the commercial on television, and even the taste of something new can cause a significant effect on his life to a point of no turning back. Once you know wine after always tasting water would you stay satisfied with water again? Unlikely...but it happens.

Without the deep thinking part, the short by Mr. Magalhães is a curious and well-made project. There are countless little insights and references throughout the film with sound effects, images that references and spoofs famous brands, all are clear shots and clear jabs against marketing and it's pollution of ideas and ways to convince people to acquire more, to buy more and to get really hooked on their product to the extent where you just buy it without needing the product or wanting it, it's just part of the routine.

In those 40 years later, with countless of technological advances, social media, internet and such, have we changed all that much from the hungry cat?

A little, I think. There's less advertising, there's less pollution and at times we can even skip it when we don't feel the need to keep waiting for our entertainment to happen, yet we are still bombarded every single day of our lives, if not by the media there's always someone around us to remind us that there are new things happening in life and society and we (sometimes) have to feel like part of the trend. I guess today there's more intelligence and freedom of choice applied to consumerism, life has become quite expensive over the years so the majority of people only acquires the things they actually need it rather than buying to fulfill an emptiness. Maybe I'm wrong, but not totally. And all that the cat had was free samples of the stuff he needed and the stuff he didn't.

How to chose afterwards? In the words of a greater poet "If I haven't seen such riches, I could live with being poor." 10/10.