Forevergreen - Comments & Tips

Cool animation and a sweet film. 2025 (98th) Academy Award nominations: Best Animated Short Film

[Annecy '25] The parable of the prodigal son, translated into a story between a bear cub and a tree that acts as an adoptive father, manages to create a universal message beyond its religious background. The artistic direction is notable for its use of computer-generated images to create a carved wooden texture that represents the landscape and the characters. Despite these seemingly rigid designs, the movements of the animated beings are agile and tactile, achieving surprising effects on elements such as the pine branches of the parent tree.

“Forevergreen” is one of this year's Oscar shortlist entries for Best Animated Short Film, which are supposed to be cute above all else. And with a hungry bear as the main character, who is raised by a tree (!), it's not that difficult to make it charming. At the same time, the film has a neat environmental message, namely that it's terrible to litter nature with our human waste. The icing on the cake is that the animation style is also very appealing. And since the ending is compelling, I give it a solid recommendation. If you have children, you should definitely invest the 13 minutes.

WTF? He was basically like a father to him and he killed him. So sad, but it had a good message in a way.