“The Lost Thing” was a very cool animated film. Not only did it provide a great story and moral for children, but it also incorporated some interesting narrative elements. For example, some characters speak but they cannot be understood, while others can be. Furthermore, the main character sometimes will narrate how people say things, as if he is reading from a book to a child. This could be Shaun Tan – the author of the short story that later got translated onto the silver screen – using the narrative of his book and putting it into the form of the animated film. This would keep the elements of reading the book, either to yourself or out loud, in tact.
In terms of the film being an animation, it definitely caters more towards kids. Maybe by infusing narrative elements into the short animation, Shaun Tan is attempting to promote that aspect to children a little bit. Something to keep in mind is how dull and repetitive the normal world is in the film. This definitely speaks to kids being creative, in that the world where all the lost things are seems very colorful and unique. Shaun Tan does a very nice job in terms of fusing the narrative elements of a book and the animation elements of a film. After all, it did win an Academy Award.
