Summary
If Anything Happens I Love You is a touching piece of work that examines the void left behind after a tragedy using a beautiful animation and translating an important message.
Netflix film If Anything Happens I Love You was released on the streaming service on November 20, 2020.
If Anything Happens I Love You does not give audiences enough time to reflect, with the 12-minute thought-provoking short animation leaving with plenty of impact. The creators had something in mind here; they wanted to articulate a painful emotional void between two people who care for each other in the aftermath of a tragedy.
That tragedy is a school shooting, and the parents in this animation have lost their child, which is an unfortunate reality that can happen any day in the United States of America. The Netflix film forms a bubble around the parents, demonstrating the depth of depression that can torment a family in this situation. As the old saying goes, “No parent should have to bury their own child,” and this animated short conveys that emptiness produced by grievance and disbelief rather well.
If Anything Happens I Love You uses a range of shadows to express the parent’s feelings –while they remain silent, their shadows are energetic in movement, reflecting what they want to say to each other, but their emptiness weighs them down. That emotional void is such an arc in the 12 minutes that it becomes the highlight of the short film. The creators have managed to make a beautiful piece of work here that etches on your mind well after the short has finished.
But the main message I got from this, apart from the importance of dealing with a tragic loss, is how this should not be a reality. If Anything Happens I Love You presents the moment the school shooting happened, and the text that was sent before the tragedy — “If anything happens I love you”. The Netflix film raises awareness of a symptomatic problem that has only decreased in statistics due to a pandemic and not due to protocols in place to prevent unnecessary deaths of the young. The trauma of these events extends past the students; it indirectly hurts those waiting for news on the outside as well.
If Anything Happens I Love You is a touching piece of work that examines the void left behind after a tragedy using a beautiful animation and translating an important message.
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