OR, Why can’t we be friends?
If you believe stuff like science and sociology, then you know we’re all pretty much screwed. With urban populations around the world expected to grow by 1.4 billion in the next dozen years, the global struggle for resources has begun. Megacities will be realities as will all the chaos, calamity, and overcrowding that comes with them. As it stands you’re only nine meals ‐ the amount of food most of us have on hand in our homes ‐ away from total and complete anarchy, and as more and more hungry mouths show up to the party on the late great planet Earth, that number shrinks exponentially. The 2030 crisis is real, people, and it is nigh.
Given that this kind of fearmongering rhetoric is flourishing in the current media landscape, it’s no surprise that the setting du jour in mainstream storytelling is the post-apocalypse. But out of all the possible endgame scenarios ‐ global famine, a pandemic, terrorism, weather-related catastrophes, global warming, nuclear strife, extraterrestrial colonization ‐ the one we seem to love the most is the least likely (and maybe that’s why we love it so much): the zombie apocalypse.
At present there are three TV shows set in such a world: AMC’s The Walking Dead, which is the highest-rated series currently on the air, Starz’ Ash vs The Evil Dead (if you’re feeling liberal with your definition of “zombie”) and SyFy’s Z Nation, which while nowhere near the standards of TWD or even AvED, still does quite well with its audience. Now go to Netflix, or Amazon Prime, or Redbox and take a look through the new horror listings; I’ll bet you dollars to donuts at least half the available titles have something to do with zombies. Whether this fascination with the living undead stems from a sociological projection of ourselves as metaphorical breathing corpses, creatures already dead but too stupid to lie down, or whether it’s because we dig really gross stuff is not the point of this post; what is, is that we as Americans have zombies on the brain.
You might think that this over-saturation of the marketplace would make any and all zombie projects somewhat redundant (especially if you’re George Romero) but the contrary is often true: the more crap there is, the easier it is to recognize the gold. And gold is exactly what you get in the following animated short The Story of Ginger & Snapper which is written, directed and narrated by D.C. Douglas (who played “Pa Kettle” on three episodes of Z Nation, so he knows the landscape) and animated by Rachael Leone.
Ginger is a little girl living in the wake of a zombie apocalypse. While most of the planet has perished because they stuck to the cities, Ginger lives way out in the country and thus far hasn’t seen a single zombie. She also hasn’t seen a living person in a while, so has grown quite lonely. That is until one day when she receives a guest, a zombie she names Snapper, and the two form a friendship that’s like a steak with whipped cream on top: sweet and savory. Lachey Chabert (Mean Girls) is perfectly cast as naïve and lonesome Ginger, and voiceover artist Liam O’Brien (Planet Hulk) tackles the nuanced groans of Snapper.
I know it’s after Halloween, but there’s never a wrong time for a scary treat, so carve out a couple minutes to watch The Story of Ginger & Snapper.
Related Topics: Comedy, Short Films
