User blog:AustinDR/In a Heartbeat (Review)

Dangit, internet, why are you always doing this to me? So, I had seen one of my watchers, Powerpuffpony1 (http://powerpuffpony1.deviantart.com) talk about this short animation, so I decided to watch it myself. About 3 or 4 times to say the least. In a Heartbeat is about a middle schooler named Sherwin. Sherwin crushes after another middle schooler boy named Jonathan. I mean, the dude can twirl an apple on his finger for goodness sake. I can totally see why Sherwin developed a huge crush on him. However, he's afraid of revealing his feelings for Jonathan as he feared the possible shaming from the other students, or even worse, Jonathan may not reciprocate his feelings. To make matters worse, his heart leaps out of his chest; no really, it leaps out of his chest, and it goes after Jonathan. Well, that got worse.

So after seeing the short animation, what did I think about it? I completely loved it. Sherwin is simply adorable; he's nervous about his feelings for Jonathan, and he cutely hides whenever he's near him, though some of that can be easily interpreted as stalking. I just really, really found Sherwin a likable character so much so, that I wanted him to succeed. i swear when Sherwin got exposed and his heart was torn in part I was close to tears. I was like "no, this was going swimmingly so far, please don't let this happen!" Or whenever Sherwin and Jonathan were close to lip level, I was practically screaming "kiss him, dammit, kiss him!" Though of course I was screaming internally. Jonathan's heart was also pretty adorable as well, though with him panting like a dog when they were close to Jonathan....yeah, that was a little creepy. As for Jonathan himself, he's fine. I do like how he does reciprocate Sherwin's feelings especially when it seemed as though he was going to reject Sherwin's feelings. However, there isn't really much I can say about Jonathan as he doesn't really have as much character to him as Sherwin does.

The animation was beautiful. It boded well with the cutesy feel of the video. For one, the use of lightness and darkness. The light represents danger whereas the dark represents security. In the scene where Sherwin gets outed is in the middle school; immediately, his classmates start to whisper in a sinister tone. And in the shade of the tree, Jonathon and Sherwin began to bond as their hearts symbolically merge into one. I would even say that this animation can rival the likes of Pixar. In addition, there isn't any dialogue in the film. Despite this, you can tell what each character is thinking through their facial expressions. From the first time you see Sherwin smiling longingly at Jonathan from the tree, you can tell right away that he has a crush on him. Or when the two boys are finally in the school building; Sherwin looks at the others in dejection and fear at how they would perceive him, thus causing him to do the drastic and rip his heart in half to escape. Jonathan himself looks at him and the other students in confusion as to what had just transpired, but he also slowly begins to figure it out, and goes to console Sherwin.

As much as I loved this animation, one issue that I had with the film is pretty minor, but I consider it bothersome. It's the whole love at first sight trope. Realistically speaking, that kind of affection wouldn't happen, and it gives off the bad impression that anyone could become a couple regardless of whether or not you know enough about the person. But it's a minor nitpick; overall, I absolutely adored In a Heartbeat; it was adorable, the characters are so cute that it makes you want to see them together, the message isn't shoved down your throat, and it uses its animation and facial expressions to convey its story to the watcher. I highly recommend this short animation, not necessarily if you are gay or whatever, but if you're an animation lover.

Final score:

4 stars out of 5