Looking at the animated character designs, it seemed like Birdboy: The Forgotten Children would be a cutesy, creepy cartoon for children with a defanged Halloween aesthetic. But the cute animals of the island face a horror much scarier than plenty of terrifying tales, because their horrors mirror everyday poverty in a fictional island taken, destroyed, and tossed aside by an industry producing garbage. It immediately starts off bleak, with a father telling his son what became of the island as they pick up copper scraps for food, and as the film continues, desperation starts closing in, shifting the colors into a red, white, and black nightmare. Birdboy: The Forgotten Children takes on a different tone than what animation lovers are used to seeing, but it’s a welcome difference in a media landscape made to distract from today’s troubles.
"This is a beautiful film, and an ugly one, and the tension between those two sides doesn't abate until the very last scene."
— David Ehrlich
"An oft-grisly and always visually dazzling allegorical fantasy that puts funny animals in a post-dystopian semi-wasteland."
— Glenn Kenny
Teenagers Birdboy and Dinki have decided to escape from an island devastated by ecological catastrophe: Birdboy by shutting himself off from the world, Dinki by setting out on a dangerous voyage in the hope that Birdboy will accompany her.
After the town’s factory exploded, the pristine island home of a cast of talking animals became a wasteland, with the remaining inhabitants needing to scavenge for copper for food. Because of this, some of the children decide to leave their homes for a better life, though the town’s outcast Birdboy discovers some golden acorns that can revive the island.
You know how in cartoons, the kids go on a quest, fight some villains, and through the power of friendship, they will succeed? Well, things don’t go the exact same way here, but that’s all we’ll mention to avoid spoilers.
Birdboy :(
