"I wonder why Mamie was never interested in me or her other grandchildren.''
Mamie is a 2020 animated Canadian short film, where Janice Nadeau recounts her memories of her grandma, Mamie, in a story about the breaking the cycle of passing things on.
A few things that we know about Mamie: She lived in a house by the sea, where none of the windows face the sea, she hates travelling, and that she's not interested in her grandchildren. Janice wonders what made Mamie so indifferent.
See it on the NFB's official Youtube channel here
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Tropes for Mamie
- Absurd Phobia: Mamie's house doesn't have windows that look out into the sea because she's afraid of water, however, she doesn't seem to be averse to looking at the sea on an outing.
- Broken Bird: It's implied Mamie became this, when we see how her life turned out, with her children growing up and moving away ("There was no one left to eat her molasses pie."), losing her husband ("Mamie loved Grandpa"), and then being made to move away when the province decided to build a railroad, after that, as Janice put it, Mamie took refuge in her memories.
- Chekhov's Gun: Earlier in the short when Janice starts to recount her memories of Mamie, she's shown laying underneath a floral blanket, said blanket once being Mamie's and was once an heirloom.
- Dead Hat Shot: We get this with Grandpa's toupee falling in his lap, confirming that he's not asleep.
- Happily Married: You get the idea that Mamie's relationship with Grandpa was this, as, in an imagination sequence, you have them dancing, how she looked after him after he got paralyzed down one side, bought him a toupee, and how devastated she was when he passed away. Grandpa passing away was the second to last nail in the coffin for her.
- Neat Freak: Mamie's house always smelled like bleach and, in that sequence, we see her cleaning with it. Janice recounts that she liked that smell but her mother didn't as it quote, "reminded her of bad memories".
- Noodle Incident: In the brief mention of Grandpa, Janice recounts that he was paralyzed down one side of his body and says, "I don't know how he got that way."
- Perpetual Frowner: Mamie is seldom shown smiling, as the page's image will tell you, and wears a rather serious expression.
- Posthumous Character: The titular Mamie has likely passed sometime before the short's release.
- Supreme Chef: Mamie has to be if her kids fought over who got the corners of the molasses pies she made. It's also mentioned that she cooked too much food, too.
