From Omeleto.
A stray dog finds a family.
SUPERTRAMP is used with permission from Fabrizio Gammardella. Learn more at https://facebook.com/supertrampshortfilm.
A lonely little girl with a skin ailment struggles with feeling alone and different in the world. But when she finds a puppy on the street that has markings on its face like she has on her skin, she finds solace and companionship.
But when her parent objects to the puppy, it’s taken away and dumped back onto the street. But the adorable dog embarks on a new odyssey, discovering the highs and lows of life in search of a place and home to belong.
Directed and written by Fabrizio Gammardella, this touching and expressive short animation tracks one canine’s journey as it searches for love and family. With the help of an evocative musical score, brisk pace and a sure-handed approach to storytelling, it immerses us in an emotional narrative that is both heartwarming and heartwrenching, taking the puppy through different tableaux of human struggle and strife in hopes of finding a home.
The storytelling has no dialogue, but the line-style 2-D animation is detailed and expressive, able to communicate the fleeting feelings and reactions of its human and non-human characters with subtlety and fluidity. Each setting of the dog’s journey has a rich level of detail, conveying the personality of its human inhabitant with rich and often earthy colors. As the puppy grows up and finds a new home with each turn of fate, we also see the increasing squalor and difficult straits of each owner.
As it gets older, the dog becomes more worn down, its demeanor heavy and slow through neglect. Yet through it all, the dog is loving and loyal, unwilling to leave even in the most distressing of circumstances. Even with humans who are indifferent or unable to care for an animal companion, it stays close, looking for crumbs of both food and affection. When it finally reaches the end of the line and finds itself unattached and unmoored from its last home, it returns to the only turf it can remember calling home for any sustained period — a sharply poignant reminder of how deeply attached the dog is to any semblance of love and care it receives.
It would seem a sad fate for the canine, but SUPERTRAMP ends on a heartwarming fate, as the dog’s ability to be resilient and love deeply and loyally, even in the most trying of circumstances, is rewarded. Fate has been capricious for the puppy, but in a full-circle moment, it brings the dog back to its beginning, much in the same way it has returned to the last place where it experienced love and affection. And then it experiences its kind of homecoming, one that pays tribute to the enduring love and unconditional affection of dogs — and the deep bonds between humans and the animals that love them.
