Sand Castle / Quiz 2 EC

The short film "Sand Castle" shows a character who emerges from the sand in the middle of a desert, and begins to build a community around himself including a large sand kingdom and many friend creatures to populate the community. The character's friends help him build up a large castle, poking holes for windows and doors, and packing walls up along with tall towers. The claymation including the use of sandy characters is brilliant, and it flows seamlessly. The characters are all interesting and peculiar in their own ways, some with an unusual number of legs, others resembling actual animals but with a few different features. Just as beautifully as it was constructed, the tower meets it demise from the strong desert winds. All of the animals seek shelter within the walls of the sandcastle, but it's no use, because the wind topples the building on top of them. The wind howls until there are no more remnants of the grand castle that once stood.

This film makes me think of the reading by C.S. Lewis where he talks about the three ways to write for children. It shows that stories that are meant for children can be enjoyed by both the young kids and adults alike. The story is charming and pulls you in with fun characters and beautiful visuals, and makes the viewer forget about any preconceived notions about children's media being unenjoyable for adults.