This disgusts you, right? It frightens you, doesn't it?
Old Fangs is a 2009 animated short film directed by Adrien Merigeau and produced by Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon. It can be watched here
on Cartoon Saloon's official YouTube channel.Three friends—a wolf, a fox, and a cat—drive to the edge of a forest and walk through it. The wolf remembers having spent a lot of time in these woods as a child. They eventually make their way to a clearing with a single house in the middle of it; the wolf goes inside, revealing that he's come to visit his drunk, derelict father.
Tropes:
- Alcoholic Parent: The wolf's father is clearly a drunk, and the house he still lives in is a mess.
- Bittersweet Ending: The wolf seems to have gained some closure after visiting his old home and the forest where it's located. However, he fails to make amends with his father, and the last shot focuses on the father alone in the house, crying.
- Ghibli Hills: There are a lot of lingering shots of the forest as the wolf and his friends walk through it, and the wolf has flashbacks to when he played in this same forest as a child.
- Medium Blending: The short begins with live action footage of a forest before cutting to the traditional animation that makes up the bulk of the story. There's still occasional live action footage scattered throughout.
- No Name Given: None of the characters have any proper names.
- Silence Is Golden: The short has very little dialogue, focusing more on visuals and sound design to tell the story. There are long stretches of time where none of the characters say anything.
- Taking the Kids: The wolf's father apparently did something to prompt his mother to leave him, but not before taking her son with her and running away with him through the woods.
- World of Funny Animals: The short seems to take place in one, since the only characters seen are anthropomorphic animals.
- Your Size May Vary: The wolf's father seems to change size based on the scene. In the present day, he appears to be several feet taller than his son, while in flashbacks he only appears to be a head or two taller. By the end of the short, his body takes up almost the entirety of his house.
