Robot Buddy Becomes Killer in Stunning Short Film

[bad rider]

Sat through this repeating to myself, he just wanted to be your friend dammit!

 

[antipunt]

This is my interpretation, of course, but look at the film's focus: The mother and father presumably got married because they wanted to be together, but ended up fighting and breaking their marriage. The film opens up with the kid seeing something that he really wants, but you see the slow decay of those feelings, and the eventual out-right anger and hatred that boils out of the kid. It's a parallel to what he's seen his whole childhood. It's obvious the kid is damaged by his parents broken relationship, and in turn he damages his robot.

The film is definitely more an indictment of absentee parenting. You're quite right that the parents, like many people, got married because (presumably) things were new and fun. Then reality catches up, and the newness wears off. Things fall apart.

And then they had a baby. Because who doesn't love babies? But, as babies do, they grow into children. (Also note how they have a dog, which was once a cute new little puppy) The cuteness (newness) is gone, and they fall into neglect. How often do you see the parents actually interact with the kid--except to scold him for making a mess, or just to buy him stuff?

But kids are always listening, always learning. He was learning to be angry, like his parents. And he was parenting Blink the same way. Through anger and neglect. Because he didn't want a robot, he wanted a new robot--something that no robot will stay forever. His parents wanted a baby, not a child. They wanted a honeymoon, not a marriage.

And just as Alex was angry at his parents, he was causing Blinky to be angry at his parent, Alex. How do we know he was angry? He chose to follow Alex's mother's instructions, putting aside the things that Alex told him to do. He rebelled against his parent.

Alex is as much a victim of the absentee parents as he was of Blinky. And then Blinky goes on to show us how twisted up someone can (though not always) get in the absence of involved parents and a stable home.

*Bingo*. Much truth to both your posts. Clearly, children model their 'parents' (whoever 'they' turn out to be). Anger management, in this case, is relevant. How do you approach conflict resolution? According to Mr and Mrs., chronic, violent yelling.

What really freaks me out, more than anything, is a large % of the public reaction to the film. People who proclaim "the kid deserved it!", in my opinion, are completely missing the point.

There's definitely a parallel here with regards to how criminals are viewed by the mob-society as a whole. "Kill the ****, he totally deserves it. The soulless devil-worshiper". And yet, the majority of these individuals are actually -byproducts- of society itself. If you trace the histories of serial killers, pretty much all the time you'll discover they grew up in incredibly dysfunctional families.

It's great to have your cake and eat it too ("look at me, being such a morally, upstanding citizen! Oh, and yeah, I had a loving family while growing up/unrelated").

True enough, however, I eventually came to the reluctant conclusion that we -do-, however, as unfair as it seems, have to condemn people who perform undesirable acts in our society. But this is more to do with the core of societal functioning, rather than any actual 'blame' on the individual themself.

Needless to say, I do not believe in contra-causal free will. Nor do I believe, that these opinions will ever become the status quo. It's a lot easier (and fun) to just burn the witch.

 

[Susurrus]

Isn't the whole thing more of a variation on the "Be careful what you wish for" theme, than anything else?

Further, I actually found the debate of whether Blinky was capable of feeling anything a much more interesting one than the justification for his murderous rampage. For me, the whole meatballs scene had no impact - it was the ones prior to that, where the boy takes out his rage on a passive, hapless robot, in a manner in which it was unable to respond to, that were the most powerful for me. THAT bit of the relationship really echoed that of his parents - except that Blinky was the target, whereas the boy was not the target of the parents' breaking relationship.

I'm perhaps a bit more nostalgic than most, and I know the kid is young, but I'm pretty sure I'd always view my first robot with something like affection, however limited its functions - just as I did my first computer, etc. But then, I've always been a firm believer in the ghost in the machine, so...

edit: Also note that Binky's malfunction must be explained as a malfunction, not an obeying of commands - he is NEVER commanded to cook up the child - the mother threatens that she WILL command him, if he doesn't behave - but she never actually phrases it as a command.

 

[Centrophy]

Cliche is cliche... then again I suppose you can't really tell a story without conflict. Well a story worth telling anyway.

 

[Susurrus]

Cliche is cliche... then again I suppose you can't really tell a story without conflict. Well a story worth telling anyway.

So all conflict is cliche?

 

[fooddood3]

Thanks for spoiling it in the title brah.

 

[LWS666]

the whole thing starts to fall apart when you start to analyse it (he keeps blinking with camera shutters, but has no reason to other than an asthetic choice. if he sees through pictures he'd need to take one every nano second, if he seees through video the blinking just gets in the way, for example) aswell as the programming that would be needed to do everything, yet is non-existant for everything else (if he can kill, he must know how to kill, if he knows how to kill he must either be programmed to kill aswell as the knowledge of how to kill both dogs and humans, both of which would take alot of time to program with no real need to, or has the ability to learn in which case he would be able to do somehting other than hide and seek) but the animation really set it apart for me, particularly the rain scene. absolutley beautifle

 

[SplicedUp068]

Good God, it's like somebody hit the kill switch on Wall-e

 

[Centrophy]

Cliche is cliche... then again I suppose you can't really tell a story without conflict. Well a story worth telling anyway.

So all conflict is cliche?

No, the fact that it's about a robot freaking out and killing people. It's a story that's been told countless times. Why can't it ever be a story about a robot(s) being helpful to humanity and reveling in their servitude. The only one that kind of comes to mind that did that was Bicentennial Man.

 

[JordanXlord]

i am going to now have nightmares of this...damn it logan

i all ready have nightmares that the vegans i killed will come back from the grave and try to kill me and then the one about the clowns....*Sivers*

now i will be haunted in my sleep by a cute Evil Smiley Robot

i hope your happy

 

[Susurrus]

Cliche is cliche... then again I suppose you can't really tell a story without conflict. Well a story worth telling anyway.

So all conflict is cliche?

No, the fact that it's about a robot freaking out and killing people. It's a story that's been told countless times. Why can't it ever be a story about a robot(s) being helpful to humanity and reveling in their servitude. The only one that kind of comes to mind that did that was Bicentennial Man.

Arguably Blade Runner too. There the replicants were just mad that they couldn't live a longer life - not that they were servants.

 

[PrototypeC]

Realization: Alex and his family did everything the advertisement said NOT to do. Have a listen (right before Blinky "cleans" him).

I thought they could have been more subtle when Blinky reavealed what happened to the kid, istead of out right stating that he killed him but the build up really worked for me. I also noticed how easily my interpretation of Blinky's expression went from goofy grin to slasher smile, without any extra effects to make hime look evil.

I thought it was much creepier that he DID say exactly what happened. After all, to Blinky, he was doing good. Don't you think he did good?

Keep in mind, while this Blinky wasn't the only malfunctioning model, I imagine the other ones glitched in different ways... like if they were told to "watch their step" while they were trying to "plant the flowers" as told, they might end up hopping on one leg planting flowers everywhere rather than becoming serial killers like this one did.

 

[Pumpkin_Eater]

I found myself feeling more sorry for the robot than the kid.

 

[Susurrus]

Also, watching it back - was anyone else jarred by how quickly the mother believed Blinky? Such a horrid realization would surely be dawning, not instantaneous...
"You did what?!"

 

[Ardenon]

OOOOps
There was a problem loading this video.

 

[Ulixes Dimon]

That scared the ever living crap out of me.
That was much better than any blockbuster horror and it actually had some insight.

 

[Matthew Ketchell]

What a work of art!

 

[Outcast107]

Also, watching it back - was anyone else jarred by how quickly the mother believed Blinky? Such a horrid realization would surely be dawning, not instantaneous...
"You did what?!"

So your saying you wouldn't feel sick to your stomach that a robot, that really can't lie at all from what it seem, telling you that your child is missing because he cut him up, clean him and made him for dinner and your eating him right now.

 

[GaryH]

While that was very good, creepy and generally enjoyable I have to say that the plot felt a bit forced. Why on earth would the kid tell the robot to kill him and his parents/his mom to threaten to have the robot cook him? Both stood out like sore thumbs as something that no one would actually say unless they happened to be cast in a short film wherein they had to unwittingly order a robot to kill them.

Seeing as the film was going in the direction of a robot that has to do whatever you tell him to do, I was expecting "make my parents stop arguing" to be the command that made things go horribly wrong. That could have, perhaps, been a bit more real and slightly more terrifying as a result.

Don't misunderstand me here, this was a great little film! Minor criticisms like that didn't stop me from loving it!

This is my interpretation, of course, but look at the film's focus: The mother and father presumably got married because they wanted to be together, but ended up fighting and breaking their marriage. The film opens up with the kid seeing something that he really wants, but you see the slow decay of those feelings, and the eventual out-right anger and hatred that boils out of the kid. It's a parallel to what he's seen his whole childhood. It's obvious the kid is damaged by his parents broken relationship, and in turn he damages his robot.

The film is definitely more an indictment of absentee parenting. You're quite right that the parents, like many people, got married because (presumably) things were new and fun. Then reality catches up, and the newness wears off. Things fall apart.

And then they had a baby. Because who doesn't love babies? But, as babies do, they grow into children. (Also note how they have a dog, which was once a cute new little puppy) The cuteness (newness) is gone, and they fall into neglect. How often do you see the parents actually interact with the kid--except to scold him for making a mess, or just to buy him stuff?

But kids are always listening, always learning. He was learning to be angry, like his parents. And he was parenting Blink the same way. Through anger and neglect. Because he didn't want a robot, he wanted a new robot--something that no robot will stay forever. His parents wanted a baby, not a child. They wanted a honeymoon, not a marriage.

And just as Alex was angry at his parents, he was causing Blinky to be angry at his parent, Alex. How do we know he was angry? He chose to follow Alex's mother's instructions, putting aside the things that Alex told him to do. He rebelled against his parent.

Alex is as much a victim of the absentee parents as he was of Blinky. And then Blinky goes on to show us how twisted up someone can (though not always) get in the absence of involved parents and a stable home.

On the other hand, this make a whole lot of sense to me! Brilliant post(s).

 

[VaudevillianVeteran]

Thought that was utterly amazing. Loved it.
...
Kid kinda deserved it and the robot was pretty cute until the whole meatball thing.