Kiwi! is an animated short made for creator Dony Permedi's master's thesis in animation. It tells the story of a very determined kiwi bird who works to accomplish his dream. At only two minutes and thirty seconds long, it might have the shortest "start-to-tearjerk" ratio of any cartoon around.
Watch it on YouTube here
. Bring tissues.
Due to the short's nature, there will be unmarked spoilers below.
This animated short provides examples of:
- Ambiguous Ending: Done intentionally on behalf of the creator.
- Armless Biped: It's subverted in that the kiwi does actually have tiny little wings.
- Bittersweet Ending: He gets what he wants in the end, but at a pretty steep cost.
- Bookends: Starts and ends with a title card displaying the word "Kiwi!".
- Call of the Wild Blue Yonder: The entire plot is based on Kiwi's ill-fated dream of flying.
- Determinator: The Kiwi. He's willing to spend his life nailing dozens of trees to the side of a cliff and jump off it just to achieve his dream, even if it lasts for less than a minute.
- Driven to Suicide: This is implied as the kiwi jumps off the cliff.
- Feet-First Introduction: The first scene of Kiwi is a shot on his feet.
- Goggles Do Nothing: They certainly don't stop the tears...
- Hammerspace: From whence he pulls an actual hammer, plus some nails.
- Happy Dance: As he looks over the cliff one last time and sees all the trees he nailed down, the kiwi jumps up and kicks his feet together in excitement.
- Last Note Nightmare: The thump at the end of the short.
- Mood Motif: Very effective. A tuba plays for the kiwi's first appearance. A glockenspiel plays during his flight. A slowed down version of the same tune plays during the credits.
- Mood Whiplash: After the ending, we are once again treated to the title screen "Kiwi!", which comes off as inappropriately cheerful given the circumstances.
- Not Quite Flight: It's falling off the side of a mountain with trees nailed to the side so as to simulate flight.
- One-Word Title
- Shown Their Work: Real kiwis really do have stubby little wings, though they're vestigial and almost always covered up by their feathers.
- Single Tear: The Kiwi sheds one as he lives his dream of flying.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: A glockenspiel plays while the Kiwi implicitly kills itself.
- Tragic Dream: Kiwi's dream of being able to fly does not come true without the ultimate sacrifice.
