George Morgan’s “The Red Ball” reminded me a lot of “If Anything Happens, I Love You.” It’s a powerful animated short about grief, pain, and attempting to start over after a horrible loss that’s shaken up someone’s innocence. In this instance, George Morgan focuses on a family’s efforts to move on and find some kind of restart despite the lingering pain of their former lives.
Here, a grief-stricken family migrate from busy London to suburban Basildon looking for a fresh start, but young Bamike is not ready to move on. A lot of “The Red Ball” is so sad in how it spotlights not only the loss of life, but the loss if innocence. When we join young Bamike, he’s playing with a dirty red ball with his older brother all while his parents rush in and out of their home packing. His father urges him to get rid of the ball.
Despite his father’s angry insistence, Bamike takes the ball to the car with them and they travel in to a seemingly new life, in a new neighborhood. But Bamike is clinging to the red ball, and can’t help but find himself thinking back to when it was so simple for him and his family. The ball is very much indicative not only of blood shed but also the lingering presence our loved ones can have through the things that we leave behind. Bamike’s struggle to let go of his brother is going to be tough one, and the way Morgan reveals the circumstances of the family’s big move is gut wrenching.
“The Red Ball” is a truly good and heartbreaking look at the effects of death paired with some unique animation to help express the sense of detachment the characters feel or want to feel from this horrible situation.