Happiness
is an animated four-minute short by Steve Cutts that was released on November 24th, 2017, on YouTube.
It's about a rat's endless and unsuccessful pursuit of happiness in a consumerist society. The rat goes from the packed sewers to mindless buying, to getting stuck in the traffic, to drinking, getting stoned, and then back to work.
See MAN for another of Cutts' earliest web animations.
Tropes:
- Alone in a Crowd: While he starts as part of the frenzied urban life as everyone else, the protagonist becomes more and more isolated—visually and metaphorically—after each failed attempt at achieving happiness. After drinking himself silly and passing out on the streets, the crowd gives him a wide berth. A Symbolic Distance remains even after he wakes up from a drug trip and limps around. The final scene is about him being trapped by an office job, surrounded by countless other rats in the same situation; yet, he can't connect with any of them because everyone is just too busy.
- Art Shift: When the rat gets stoned on happiness-inducing meds, he experiences a hallucination in which he floats above the city—a metaphor for getting away from his problems. During this sequence, the art shits to a more Inkblot Cartoon Style and the color palette becomes more saturated.
- Furry Lens: The short depicts all human beings as Rat Men due to the common association of them being numerous and leading miserable lives. The protagonist begins his journey running in the sewers, only to end in a subway packed with other rats. In fact, all scenes make a point to show how crowded the city is. The only Furry Reminder is the protagonist getting ensnared by a mouse trap—but that's a clear metaphor for grueling, underpaid work and he had been chasing after a dollar.
- Pull the Plug on the Title: The short's title appears during the credits and it's stylized as a bright red neon sign of which a rat chews the wire, therefore turning it off.
