Good Intentions | Award-Winning Stop-Motion Animated Short Film
In this small thriller about decision making and guilt, a young woman responsible for a car accident. She escapes the scene but can’t stop thinking, or imagining, what happened to the other driver. And soon strange things starts to happen…
A selection of Short of the Week, the web's leading curators of quality short films.
SUBMIT A FILM: www.shortoftheweek.com/submit/
FULL REVIEW: www.shortoftheweek.com/2020/1...
Subscribe to S/W on KZhead!
Website: www.shortoftheweek.com
Instagram: / shortoftheweek
Facebook: / shortoftheweek
Twitter: / shortoftheweek
Good Intentions
Directed by Anna Mantzaris
annamantzaris.se
"After blowing our woolly socks off with her craft in the warm and fuzzy But Milk is Important and making us cry with laughter in the darkly-comic Enough, fans of Anna Mantzaris will be happy to learn that this director’s talents continue to shine in her latest animated short Good Intentions. The eight-minute stop-motion, completed as her graduation film at the Royal College of Art, is a tale both laden with ominous atmosphere and disarming charm, all at once. It is also entirely consistent with Mantzaris’ homespun aesthetic, which persistently delights audiences and offers a two-fingered salute to the genre’s CGI contemporaries.
When a young woman causes a car accident and she flees the scene of the crime, her guilty conscience, over leaving the other driver behind, starts to eat away at her and she soon becomes a shadow of her former self. Good Intentions may first appear to be aimed at a younger audience, but don’t let the cutesy puppets and quirky set design fool you, this is a short filled with as much tension and mystery as you’d expect from any quality live-action thriller. If not more…
“Originally, I was interested in the concept of ghosts, if they can be more things than a dead person. Like if you can become a ghost of who you used to be, if someone can be a “living ghost”. And I was also curious about the idea of guilt and how it can sometimes be worse than the real action” - Mantzaris shared with S/W - “That’s how the idea started and I wrote it together with my boyfriend.”
I am a huge fan of Mantzaris’ work, and I must admit that after the huge success and mass appeal of her first two shorts, I was a little bit doubtful about whether she’d be able to rise to those great heights once again. Thankfully, I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I finished Good Intentions, because it was indeed as good, if not better, than I had hoped. Though that sigh might have also been provoked by the fact the short was so intense and at times downright scary, I watched almost the entire thing with bated breath.
Rather than being weighed down by the pressure of her success, Mantzaris seems to have used it as a leverage to take her craft and knack for dialogue-free storytelling to the next level. It’s as if she handpicked the best parts of her work thus far, and interweaved them together in Good Intentions - a method that has paid off in spades.
The director’s genius for production design comes to the fore (I imagine that having worked on Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs may have helped too). The sets are elaborate treasure troves, filled with enough Easter Eggs and tiny, quirky creations for Mantzaris’ fans to feast their eyes on, time and time again. There is also the intriguing oddity of delving into a very grownup issue, something we saw glimpses of in But Milk is Important, using the adorable lightheartedness of Enough and the perfectly imperfect puppets that have become the director’s signature.
It’s an oddity that in theory may be doomed to fall between the sensibilities of adults and children, yet Mantzaris has somehow managed to preserve and extend the innocence and enamour of her handiwork, and shaped it into something positively spooky. The result has its plush feet firmly grounded in the gloomy world of adulthood, with just the right amount of charm and imagination to pull at the heartstrings." - S/W Curator Serafima Serafimova
Director: Anna Mantzaris
Producer: Anna Mantzaris / Royal College of Art
Writers: Anna Mantzaris, Hugo Vieites Caamano
Cinematographer: Donna Wade
Scenography: Hetty Bax
Animation: Tim Allen, Anna Mantzaris, Quenting Haberham, Tobias Fouracre
Music: Phil Brookes
Sound: André Parklind
Post Production: Hugo Vieites Caamano
Reproduced on this channel with the permission of the filmmakers.
So here is the story for anyone confused. She indeed did die in that car crash. She just didn't realize it until the end. That is why the dog reacted that way to her whenever it saw her. Animals have a sense for the supernatural. She was in purgatory. She could not get out if purgatory until she fixed the thing that was plagueing her (fixing her sin) and riddled with guilt over potentially leaving a man to die she decided to check up on him. He sees her, realizing she died that day and he is seeing a ghost, and catches a heart attack from the shock. She tries to run away from him while he is dying(yet again( but is stopped by her conscious. She realizes this time the way to right her wrong was to stay with him. Not run away again. So she layed beside him.
You're a great help man(or girl), big thanks. also, nice work understanding such a complex story.
Ahhhh. Ok.
THANK YOU! A sort of got it (when she started being invisible) and then lost it. BRILLIANT PUPPETS! hope they use them again
Not quite. Read the description.
@@k.g.5116 the description doesnt disprove this analysis. It says "she escapes (flees) the scene. It doesnt say she survives the scene.
I think this short film portrayed how guilt will slowly devour you. In the comments, people say that she does in the car crash, but that’s not how I perceived it. I saw it as, she made the choice to not help the man. Her paranoia, guilt, and shame slowly started eating away at her.
And at the very end, she had another opportunity. But she let it slide, once again.
Yeah i think she became a shadow of her former self.
This is my interpretation as well. Thatswhy she slowly becomes a ghost. She doesn't go out, does not dare to show herself to the world.
True but rightfully so.
@@arikira7888she didn’t because this time she stayed with the man instead of running away
These are puppets! And yet the emotions on all the character's faces were so well done, it was easy to empathize. It was also an important message about life and decision-making.
Life and decision making? Where?
@@ArielCotton Oooh, relax, Ariel! I'll explain: Life choices. She was in a car accident--do you remember that part in the story? She made the bad decision of leaving the scene instead of attending to the person in the other car who was clearly hurt. So the rest of the video you see her suffering the guilt, plus,she's not quite sure what to do. She's clearly confused and scared looking for a solution, looking for forgiveness. Sounds like LIFE to me
@@ArielCotton iskekwiwieieueuueu
@@neverthesame7887 eeejrjf
@@neverthesame7887 ue ueuwueueue
It is obvious by the many comments here that there is more than one way to view what happened. That is the beauty of the story.
The level of detail is extraordinary. Huge amount of work for the supermarket scene. Well done.
I love the grocery store
I immediately thought the same thing when I seen the supermarket scene! The detail was phenomenal! Loved it. ❤
Yes, I'm very impressed by all the props on the shelves.
I was thinking the same thing!
Anna Mantzaris. If you are reading this, you are a perfect film maker.
The woman thought the man died when she left him after the accident. Her conscience almost killed her. She tried to find the man. When she finally found him, the man had heart attack when he saw someone in his room. Her intention is good because she just want to check what happens to him but killed him unintentionally
Why she didn't save him at the 2nd time? It was her chance to fix the situation, but she made the same mistake at the 2nd time too. ☹️
@@bladerunner7 i think its because she couldnt do anything. she couldnt touch everything; some things she couldnt touch. i dont know what makes her able to touch stuff and sometimes not, but she didnt mess up the 2nd time, she stayed with him instead of leaving like the first time.
@@bladerunner7 She couldn't touch anything because she was the one who died in the car crash
@@stephenrhodes5674 its cause she's dead
Then how did the living man see the ghost of the dead woman in his room?
The news article on the phone at 5:41 says that there was a hit and run on the motorway. Not a fatal one. It has the photo of the man. That's it. They dont typically show dead bodies in the media. With that, I dont think either of them died in the accident. I think she was experiencing guilt so bad, she felt like a ghost. She's shown stress eating but when the food doesn't go down easily, it's because her guilt has grown so much, it's no longer comforting. She drops the coffee pot because she was distracted by her guilt. But she's alive. That's why she gets cut trying to pick it up. It's why people look at her when she's walking around. She's behaving strangely. Bringing attention to herself. She just *feels* dead inside. Her good intentions was sneaking into the building. She isn't actually floating through walls. It's a visual representation of her emotions. When the man sees someone unexpectedly, he has a heart attack. Her first instinct is to run. But she isn't actually invisible. That's why she can't go through the walls. So she lies besides him, this time willing to endure the consequences. There are some plot holes though. Like why didnt she help the man at the end. I think she probably left her phone at home, since she was trying to sneak around. But this is the only explanation I can think of that makes sense with what we're seen in the story and the title.
They typically DO show pictures of traffic accident victims in the media. It's an everyday thing.
@@mynameisworld I said dead bodies. Not victims. I worked in news media for 8 years. Maybe it's a matter of location, but they don't usually dead bodies on the news. If they do, it's blurred.
If she wasn’t a ghost, how was she able to walk through the wall?
@@periel I mentioned this. Admittedly, it's quite far down. I said it's a visual representation of how she feels. I also said she isn't actually invisible. That's why the man sees her and she can't go through the walls to leave at the end. If she was dead, the man wouldn't be able to see her.
@@danitho couldn’t he see a ghost and that’s why he had a heart attack?
The grocery store items and setup are INCREDIBLE !!! WOW !!! 😍😍😍 !!!
No wonder it's a Award-Winning Stop-Motion Animated Short Film. It's pretty good
The way I see this, the woman already died in the car crash but she thought she was still alive. The man on the other hand, survived. The woman was guilty as she thought the MAN died, so the guilt eats away at her. Until she eventually decides to check up on the man. She drifts through the walls, indicating that she is a ghost. At the man's office, she thought the man died while going to Hawaii. However, the man is indeed very much alive (but still hurt with the bandage on his forehead). He saw the woman-ghost, and nearly died a second time from a heart attack. This time, the woman stayed with the man as she doesn't want to feel guilty after leaving him to die (for the second time, at that).
did she work on The House?? the character designs and the general atmosphere remind me sooo much of the first story in that show! i hope so, she did really well with this!
Yeah that’s what i was thinking
this comment is a couple of months old, so you might've already found this out, but i also immediately recognized the style of animation from the house and looked it up and while the director did not work on it one of the animators credited on the description (tim allen) did! :)
@@giovannadpaula Tobias Fouracre is another person that worked on both projects, though as an animation director in The House.
I didn't see any good intentions but only consequences of bad choices that cause slow death, perhaps to others as well as ourselves.
I would literally destroy you in a fight
Es una forma de decir, quizás ironía
This was amazing! Big round of applause, for all the tremendous, work that was put into this entire film! Great job everyone!
The 她杀了他 (she killed him) neon store sign is a nice touch
theres still some things i dont really get. When she crashed into him and almost killed him it was UNINTENTIONAL. The second time, she INTENTIONALLY goes to see him, and then she kills him because he has a heart attack. I see the guilt as a theme, but is the story trying to say you can hurt someone intentionally AND unintentionally, but what matters is to do the right thing. She hurts him worse the second time by checking up on him out of GUILT, but although it was intentional, she didnt mean to hurt him. Yet, she knew she had to stay there and do the right thing or she would still be haunted by her guilt.
Yes !
No the thing is she was the one who died...but all along she was thinking she killed him...she didnt realize the fact that she was a ghost...that is why..she was binging all the time cause the food never reached her stomach..in the supermarket..when the man turned his head he couldnt see anyone..the mall door sensor not working for her and also the dog yelling at her..because they have a sixth sense which we don't have..when she found she couldn't touch anything..both out of guilt and doubt she went to check up on the man..and found him alive..whilst the man who was probably going through guilt too that in reality he was the one who killed her..saw her ghost and had a heart attack..when she realized everything..she ttied to leave but her conscience stopped her..and that's why she couldn't get through..so she stayed with him..as if to compensate for what she thought she did..
Yeah but she didn’t even phone an ambulance
@@teaacustardcream2868she can’t touch anything or be seen or heard since she’s a ghost
Intricate art with the style, the gestures, and the details. Yet, disturbing theme: not sure how the “good intentions” title fits here. The first time she ran away instead of trying to help the man out of a car or at least calling for help… Then the second time she meets the man, he gets a heart attack because he saw a ghosts that was her… she attempted to run away again but the wall stopped her. Perhaps that means her conscience. Ok, a second chance to do the right thing… did she call for help? No. Did she try to help him? No. Did she at least try to console him? No. Being the ghost that scares him to begin with, what does she do? She gets closer to him, stares at him, and without a single attempt to amend her doing, she simply lies besides him. Seems to me as if she needed that for herself more than even considering the other person. This got stuck in my head pondering on how humans have become so self absorbed that things like accountability, respect, care and compassion become obsolete. She obviously doesn’t even feel those things for herself with the way she lives, how could she possibly feel that for others? So so heartbreaking and sad…. 😣😞
What I took from it is that sometimes you have to let things go and live with the consequences of your actions. She was being impacted, and so her desire was to make things right. In her desire to do so she inadvertently made matters worse. Her desire to rid herself of her guilt led to his real death. Had she just let it go, he would have lived a happy life. She had good intentions, but it resulted in a bad outcome.
I'll try break this down she did not die she is not a ghost its a representation of guilt and how she is in a moral scense not a real person shown as a metaphor. And ya he almost died as the car could have caught fire afterwords
Oh ok makes sense
Afterwards
And the heart attack ???
This makes the most sense.
If she’s not ghost, how does she walk through the wall?
I knew she already died the moment that door couldn't recognise her existence. And she didn't pay by the way. She just ran with that Lays.
wonder what the people in the store thought when they saw a floating bag of chips
I love that embedded in this is the lesson to freaking stop at stop signs
Hello from Alaska. Definitely 😮 wow i will watch again amazing and share
You know that cliche about made my heart stop? Well, this really did. Made me hold my breath. Made my head race.
Wow, great work! Animation, lighting, puppets, props - all this is done at a high level. 👍👏
Here is how I understood the story. She slows down at the stop sign but keeps driving, because she does not see him in time. He is speeding with his truck, slams in her small car and kills her. She is a confused ghost who mistakingly thinks she is still alive, and the one to blame, and flees the scene. The mix of numbness and shock on his face as he sits in his truck with his head injury could also be because he sees her dead. She returns to her home as a ghost but has visions of him, including the „hit and run“ news on her phone. Her own death slowly becomes more obvious as she slowly becomes invisible, and can walk through walls, but she still does not get it. Her physical control of the world gets less and less, like when the coffee pot just drops through her hands, even though the splinters still cut her and she can still use her laptop. When she finds him, it turns out he is the survivor and the one ridden with guilt. He thinks her ghost has come to haunt him, and he has a fatal heart attack. She understands for the first time that they are both dead/dying, and lies down next to him. The accident and its aftermath has doomed them both, but tragically connects them in death.
Wow!!! All that and you're waaay off in your perception of it. Like so many others, just jumping to conclusions and conjuring up conclusions and answers to things that never happened. It's like half of everything you see is an illusion! You perceive things to be that are not. Just a suggestion, seek help
George B, a more constructive and confident response could have been something like „Wow! I had a completely different interpretation“, and then you could have explained yours. Maybe that idea did not occur to you. Or maybe it did occur to you, but you still chose to bully strangers on KZhead with generic insults. Either way, your choice does not reflect kindly on you. Make better choices next time.
Estimado @@ingovanthiel6660 , estoy de acuerdo con tu interpretación de la película, sin embargo, ella sí tuvo la culpa en el accidente, NO respetó el disco pare, esto es detenerse completamente, mirar bien y luego continuar. Como tal, sintió miedo y vergüenza por el daño provocado que prefirió huir en vez de ayudar, su culpa interna la obligó a buscar al hombre... Ahora, no sé sí él murió del ataque cardíaco, porque se ve que respira y mueve los ojos hasta el término de la película... Saludos
@@ricardo_jimenez Thank you for sharing your interpretation. You are right, she drives past the stop sign. So…. yes, legally speaking, the accident is her fault. You also make an interesting point about the ending: It is ambiguous because we do not see him die. I am not optimistic about his fate, because we do not see anyone else who could call an ambulance. Still, I like your open question because it leaves a glimmer of hope. What if he lives, what would happen next? Inspiring response, thank you! :)
Ingo your interpretation seems to connect all the dots for me, thank you! ❤️
“I didn’t get you the first time. So I’m going to stay to make sure you really go.”
I haven’t seen a stop motion this good in along time
Absolutely brilliant and these videos are" absolutely wonderful" much better than TV thanks KZhead's everyone
Brilliantly well done! Thanks for the video.
The details are amazing. And the creativity of the burning flames, nice!
Clever story with a unique look...
Absolutely amazing. Stunned. 😍
I had to rewind and play it again because I saw that she was transparent. Very heartbreaking.
Wow I think this could win awards!! This cartoon is exceptional and magical ! Thank you so much💥👍🍀☘️🌿🌱🌴
We can't always fix the wrong things that we've done but we shouldn't try to escape from it.. Sometimes the best thing we can do is to not run away from it and that's enough..
this is amazing I really do enjoy this video
An engaging and brilliantly made quality stop motion short film! Loved it!! And i would love to see more short films from the same creators!!!!
Nice animation
Not only that the artist had assembled the woman as partially invisible. I got to admit the ending was unending I suppose. Yes it makes sense that she passed away. I was hoping they both survived the crash 💥 but can still believe they lived rightfully in my mind. The ending could be summarized any many ways, depending on how you look 👀 at it!
I wish I could see a documentary of this stop motion video on the creating of this😃😃😃I also wanted to mention the sound affects, voices,music, are all so superb. !!!
very cool! greetings from Greece!
Never understood the art effect of a ghost who is passing through the wall but stays on the space like alive. only the flying ghost like Casper is real)
Aw wow...this reminded me of a loved one...whenever their hurt... Sometimes those nights rescue. .
I thought about her becoming a ghost was a metaphor of she lost her humanity by leaving the guy behind in the crash.
Thanks for this video.
How interesting the comments are! The film is fantastic, in every quality, and who interprets it and how, this tells a lot about his own world of thoughts and feelings.
Totally thought this was a snowman from the thumbnai... ⛄
Next level artistry. 👍👍
Anna Mantzaris your are a perfectionist ❤️
The best first clue that she is dead is when she flickers in the grocery store.
Wonderful!
New channel just found some inspiration here
God that was sad
i dont understand the ending..!.!ㅜ. ㅜ
Read the other comments.
@@CarolinaKasey 나도 안다 임마 내가 그걸 몰라서 ㄱ달앗겟니?
Love it!!!!
What does it mean? Can anyone explain in simple?
No entendí 🤔
It's a pun - the road to hell is paved with good intentions
There is no hell
I don't see how she can feel guilty wif she supposedly died that day. confused but this was still deep
❤
Que alguien me explique
the video description has the answer
Well that wasn't what I expected. Excellent though.
Very cool, honesty, empathy, kindness are the important virtues of human beings, karma is absolutely real.🙏
The ending was quite scary
What happened to the sound?
is this something to do with the fact that life can have a way of making you be responsible for your actions?
What?
@@ArielCotton I just feel as though at the start, she fled the scene, but at the end, she couldn't escape, and lay down with the man.
@@tillerman7272 yeah, I think you got it. She was about to go with her gut instinct yet again to flee, but then when forced to stay when her option to pass through walls was removed. She did what she wished she would've done at the car accident...stay.
Ok i got it now.. very good short film. But still scary if she died and was a ghost and didn't realize.
So nice
I don't understand it, but I want some potato chips.
Wow
What does her disappearing insinuate?
Woooah this is cool!!
Alguien español??
my opinion for the end is her guilt dissappeared and she was relieved to see the guy having a heart attack, that is why she turned solid. She looks happy to get away with it all and takes a good moment to lay next to guy who will never be able to identify the hit and run criminal the only witness to it all 😸
*YOU BROUGHT REALITY*
I still cannot believe this would happen in canada
I am so confused
How
Why did she just lay next to him and watch him die? Is she now comfortable knowing exactly how he dies this time instead of being a trick of her imagination? And the title, Good Intentions, where? Where was there one good intention in the film? Don't get me wrong, the puppetry, stop motion was superb. But the story like what the heck? I am so confused by the ending.
Same here. She felt guilty for doing a hit-and-run, but then she's just going to lay there and watch him die?? Doesn't make any sense.
Maybe that’s the point? At least that’s what I believe. Maybe the filmmaker isn’t trying to make a point, but rather invite us, the audience to make our own conclusions or questions 🤷🏽♂️
@@snarksss I'm tired of this generic and obscure answer. It gives film writers the pass to write garbage and film garbage and everyone still applauds and dances around as if it were great. I always give the benefit of the doubt that I missed the point or the film isn't directed towards me as a target audience. I will never accept "the artist left it open for interpretation" where it is obvious there is no story. It isn't an open ended horror film where we have to guess what the monster did, ate her or befriended her. Or a thriller deciding if she got a botched surgery or if she's a Stanford wife now. Nope, that is all.
I don't think he died.He had the cut on his head, so the accident was real but it seemed like she was a ghost and her laying down with him started to calm him down at the end.
she was already dead
She definitely ran the stop sign. And then fled the scene.!!!! 😮
It’s a nice animation but technically the red car didn’t hit the sheet truck ... yes the red car pulled forward but the sheet truck was going really fast and actually plowed into the side of the red car so technically if she had called the cops she was the victim not the assailant... I don’t know if it was an animation error or just an oversight to traffic law ... like it was a stop sign not a red light and there was clearly no one there at the time she pulled out the sheet truck was nowhere near the stop sign and clearly speeding... It would have worked better if she had ran a red light because it doesn’t really make sense her speeding off because it wasn’t her fault she would’ve been the victim in this traffic case lol ...
He had the right of way and was moving on a road with no traffic signals or signs. She blew a stop sign, so he t-boned her. Pretty simple scenario. She would be considered guilty in this situation.
Hmm
Watching this while high. Got me thinking if I'm a ghost now. 👻
This was before airbags I guess lol
If she died in the crash; how could she help him? I must have missed something in the story line.
Loved this, curious…. How did the women with the dog die. She could see her the second time, and because of your craft. You could tell the dog was sad and morning her passing.. nice job
Nice work on the sets and animation but the story didn't make a lot of sense. How can she be dead when she drove away from the accident and why did she fade out slowly until she could pass through walls but in the end she couldn't pass through a wall ? What was the idea behind the man in the burning van if that didn't happen ?
I thought it could have been a dream of a sort like a nightmare but I agree with you. Great animation but story wasn’t very straight
Yeah her laying down next to him while he died of a heart attack was just the worse ending
@@ArielCotton I wonder if it is not the other way around... Perhaps she died and it was the man who let her die when the car accident occured.(the fact we saw her get away with her car was in her mind) Then she was not aware to be dead and was haunting the man. Finally he ended up dying because of the shock of seeing her Ghost and this je can't escape. Either that or the woman is really dumb...
@@tsukighost7227 That wouldn't make sense to me.
It’s probably about having to live with the guilt of other people being harmed by your actions (or lack of them, in this case). She tried to keep living her life like nothing has happened, but the world itself seemed to deny her existence until she did something to redeem herself. Although she did have the intentions to correct her mistake in the end, there’s nothing she can do to erase what happened, the only thing she can do is be present right before the ones she harmed and endure the consequences. At least that’s what I thought :p
Nice short film, really interesting idea! Love your work! I direct short films also. Maybe we can collab sometime!
Short of the Week, i don't know if you are able to fix this or not but I got an ad break at the 1 minute 15 second mark of this video. Super distracting, naturally. Are you able to move up to the top of the video? or is that a youtube thing?
How many ads you see is determined by your browser my friend. I didn't see any.
@@goldeneddie that comment was 8 months ago so maybe things have changed? 🤷♂️
@@turnermunch Well, people still complain on here about ads generally. Have things changed for you, or are you still interrupted by ads? Like I say, if you want to avoid it, just change browser friend. It stops good stuff being ruined by interruptions.
Weirdness, emotional tides, heavy air.. I don't know why but, It felt like; I was watched a Scandinavian movie..
Putting the button calling you to ,,suscribe" during animation, is a cause of me never watching this chanel again...
Tendi mucho naum
Excellent
😮 but still. Poor guy , but thats is how it goes . 😅😢 Wtheck... So it was all about herself really. If you see it. It was all a dream of man made guilt, rather than ask forgiveness and learn to forgive yourself....its not that easy . Nothing is.
I y
reminds me of "this house".
What gripping, macabre and lonely film.
What???
The ending was sad the woman shouldn't of did what she did is just sad 😢😢😢