An impressive short animation. from atmosphere to each detail. for the impecable story . and for the great level of realism. a film about delicate manner to discover the near reality. soft, precise, using a familiar warning. proposing a small world , so obvious ignored. and an old fashion story. in a laboratory. in the hunt for a bag.

I absolutely loved this animation when I first saw it at Siggraph 2006. Though I could easily consider it an animated work of art based on the visual aspects of it alone, the one thing I loved most about it was that the animation studio took a divergent path in telling a story that was more or less tragic, something which is normally left to Japanese animators. I think the American audience is still on the fence about considering animation as a valid medium of expression but hopefully films such as this might help pave the way. I also found it amazing that while the style was highly realistic both in appearance and behavior, the artists where able to successfully communicate emotion through simple gestures and small changes of expression. You never forget they are rats, but you given just enough visual cues to become involved without things resulting to typical disneyesque behavior. I think that's the reason that the film has garnered so much attention. I really hope to see more from this studio since they seem to have a pool of great talent across the board. As to though who still ask how anyone can get emotionally evolved with a story about rats, I think Roger Ebert said it best in his review of Grave of the Fireflies; "This film proves, if it needs proving, that animation produces emotional effects not by reproducing reality, but by heightening and simplifying it, so that many of the sequences are about ideas, not experiences."

This animation is very beautiful, but very weird. It's a strange mix of the animal and the anthropomorphic, and the recognizable and the alien. A hungry rat follows a bag of cheetos into a ventilation shaft, which gives away to an animal testing facility where he meets a white female rat, and the two fall in love. They manage to have some brief moments together before a failed escape keeps them permanently apart, in a touching moment of loss.What's the testing facility for? We don't know. Are the white rats genetically engineered? They may be. The story is told through the perspective of the hero rat, so narrative answers like these aren't given. Yet the strange and alien world the rat finds himself in seems so utterly familiar within its alienation, partly because of its science fiction tropes and partly because the rats aren't just rats, they do have vestiges of anthropomorphic characterizations (which become more and more recognizable as the short goes on).This alien/familiar dichotomy creates both wonder and fear, which is aided by the dark film noir quality of the outside of the facility and the washed-out white quality of the inside. No space really seems comfortable in this animation, which makes it terribly cynical. However, the ballet-quality exposition of the bag and the moment when the rats are together give it just enough hope for the audience to really relate to this rat's strange/familiar adventure, which makes the ending just that much more powerful. I don't know what it means, but I can't shake it from me.--PolarisDiB

This short was a pleasant surprise. What a great plot - very original. Who would have thought to make a short love film with rats. They are so misunderstood. I love fancy rats as pets and this short showed that these people know their "rat movements" and how they react to one another and that rats can love too. They looked very realistic like I could just reach out and pet one. They made their fur look soft. The city scape was very realistic and I found myself holding my breath when the little one fell into the science lab. The film movement was fluid and not jerky. The animation was very clean and had just enough shading to make everything look real. I hope to see more animations from them in the near future. Who knew bar codes could mean trouble in the end.