SFotD: ‘The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Lion’ Brutally Comes of Age By Channeling Maurice Sendak

By  · Published on November 1st, 2012

Why Watch? A deaf boy sees lions for the first time on a trip to the zoo and is profoundly affected in this beautiful animated movie from Alois Di Leo.

The mixed animation style here is storybook with a greater sense of dimension, and the cinematography gives a great sense of motion to mimic what the little boy is feeling at any given time. His hearing aid provides an opportunity to toy with the sound design in a way that makes us experience life through his ear drums immediately – facing the alienation from and annoyance with a rowdy school bus full of loud children. It allows him to shut out the world when he wants.

A young man named Max wanting to become a wild thing? The homage to Maurice Sendak here is fairly clear, but it works completely in its own way with a story that heads in an astonishing, captivating direction. Give it a chance, and it will devastate you. Thanks to Short of the Week for featuring it.

What will it cost you? Only 8 minutes.

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Movie stuff at VanityFair, Thrillist, IndieWire, Film School Rejects, and The Broken Projector Podcast@brokenprojector | Writing short stories at Adventitious.