Summary
Timothy Ware-Hill’s Cops and Robbers is a beautifully animated short film that is undeniably powerful.
This review of Cops and Robbers (Netflix) is spoiler-free.
Timothy Ware Hill’s beautifully animated short film has landed on the streaming giant Netflix and it is a swift experience, but his Cops and Robbers is an undeniably powerful one. The potent free verse of words, the combination of various types of stunning animation, and social justice advocacy makes it a modern work of art.
The themes of racial oppression are now, unfortunately, becoming timeless. A racist can make up any excuses about why they are justified, but seeing an animated man pull a gun on a beautifully drawn child surely would a bigot question their thoughts. It’s a powerful image and not the only one you’ll come across while watching Ware-Hill’s film. His comparison of life as a child compared to today isn’t necessarily about how things have changed. It’s that at-risk groups’ offspring live in the same fear as their adult families compared to their white peers.
This is an adaptation of a spoken response video made by Ware-Hill. The film was a result of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery and the racial inequality of the legal pursuit of the white perpetrators (local police refused to charge the men in the case until this New York Times article caused an uproar that resulted in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation taking over the case. They are all now facing potential life sentences.)
His three and a half minute YouTube video went viral and is fitted with animation that’s stunning; not just the technique, but the themes behind them. You have hand-drawn, 2-D, and 3-D, the use of motion graphics and live-action from the original video that are put together. The technique does highlight the themes without taking away the film’s message.
Cops and Robbers is an undeniably powerful short film made for the masses. It can be streamed on Netflix now.
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