Feral is a 2012 animated short film by Daniel Sousa.
A boy, maybe eight years of age, has grown up wild in the forest. He seems to scavenge off the kills left by a pack of wolves. He is not raised by the wolves; in fact, they are about to eat him when the boy is rescued by a hunter. The hunter takes the boy home, dresses him in human clothes, and sends him off to school. The transition to a civilized world proves difficult for the boy.
Tropes:
- Deliberately Monochrome: Most of the short is done in a muted color palette of blacks, grays, and browns.
- "Pan Up to the Sky" Ending: The camera pans up to a gray sky, with snow falling, after the boy returns to the forest and howls like a wolf.
- Primal Stance: Although the boy sometimes walks on just his legs even when he's in the forest, he'll drop into a primal stance when threatened. He drops into a primal stance when running away, showing how he's rejecting the human world.
- Silence Is Golden: No dialogue in the short, just ambient noise, and the growling and howling of the boy and the wolves.
- Splash of Color: The bulk of the film is Deliberately Monochrome, so the bits of color that we do see, like the meat of the deer that's being torn apart by wolves, really stand out.
- Wild Child: A boy that has grown up wild in the forest. (How did the boy survive as long as he did? Who knows?)
