- "Okay, so here's the plan: we keep living happily together, we keep baking and baking and baking, we plan our wedding, which will be very simple, except for-""Except for the cake!""The best cake. Then we promise to love each other a lot...""Yes?""Then we keep on loving each other a lot. Forever.""Sounds perfect."Kat and Doug, discussing their first plan.
Here's the Plan
("Este es el Plan") is a 18-minute, 2017 Chilean computer-animated romantic drama Short Film. Directed by Fernanda Frick and financed by the National Council of Culture and Arts, it took almost 2 years of work and a talented team of 32 professionals to finish it. The film received multiple awards, including "Best Chilean Short Film" (Chilemonos 2017), "Best Short Film for Youths" (Fan Chile 2017), and "Best Short Film for Children" (FICV 2017), and an Honorable Mention for "Animated Short Category" (Shorts Mexico 2017). The film is now freely available to watch online.
A married cat-dog couple of cupcake bakers dream of opening their own bakery. One day their oven breaks and they have to postpone their dream in order to earn money and replace it. However, the more things change from their initial plans, the more the two start drifting apart.
Tropes:
- Broken Pedestal: When their life starts becoming financially stable at the cost of drifting apart, Doug is willing to forgive Kat for working overtime on their anniversary, and deciding to put their old plan of running a bakery together on indefinite hold. But when the next celebration comes around, and she buys packaged cupcakes instead of baking like she loved to do, Doug realizes how far they've drifted apart from their old selves and considers leaving her.
- Despite the Plan: The various plans that Kat makes end up being discarded. First, her plan to save up money and run a bakery together after the wedding is put on hold when the oven breaks from overuse. So they plan to take on temporary jobs until they can afford repairs, but the stability from those jobs is too enticing, so they end up keeping them. Then, on their anniversary, they plan to come home early and spend time together, but Kat gets extra paperwork before she can leave and chooses to finish it first, coming home late. Finally, it seems like even their "loving each other a lot, forever" plan will come undone when Doug is heartbroken with their current state, but his reaction snaps Kat to her senses and makes her reevaluate her life; after apologies are exchanged, they go back to their original plan, and are last seen happily living over their own bakery.
- Environmental Symbolism: Originally, Doug and Kat live in a simple, old-fashioned, cramped home, with plenty of sunlight. When they have to replace the oven by taking on more stable careers, they end up sticking with those jobs until the house is large, modern, overly spacious, and dark save for a few giant windows. And when Kat has her epiphany, she expresses it by taking a sledgehammer to a wall and letting the sunlight in.
- Female Feline, Male Mutt: The married couple the film focuses on; the husband is a dog named Doug, while the wife is a cat named Kat.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: Throughout the film, Kat repeatedly chooses her developing advertising career over her old passion of baking, though she doesn't realize that's the "Idol" choice until it almost costs her Doug, at which point she switches tracks.
- Happily Married: Doug and Kat, at first, and again at the end. An interview with Fernanda Frick even has her state that one of the film's inspirations was the common portrayals of unhappy marriages in film.
- Happy Ending: Although they nearly drift apart, Kat and Doug are able to reconcile, and even achieve their original goals of managing a bakery and continuing to love each other.
- It's All Junk: Kat reacts this way upon realizing that a stable career has given them a good home with modern appliances, but almost cost their love for each other.
- A Lizard Named "Liz": A dog named Doug and a cat named Kat.
- Minimalist Cast: Doug and Kat are the only two characters that speak, or are seen in full; the back of one of Kat's coworkers is briefly seen when giving Kat extra paperwork to do on her anniversary, and again at the end, leaving the new bakery with a box of cupcakes.
- Now What?: Doug asks this somewhat jokingly at the end, after the bakery plan has finally been accomplished.
- The Plan: The whole film is based around one of these not going as expected.
- Time Skip: Doug and Kat are newlyweds at the start of the film, but celebrate their six-year anniversary midway through, after taking on secure jobs and modernizing their house.
- Symbolically Broken Object: The wedding cake topper, of Doug and Kat holding a cupcake, gets knocked over and breaks when Doug and Kat accidentally injure themselves installing a new oven that clashes with the rest of the house; this is immediately followed by Kat deciding they should maintain their current, stable jobs instead of risking everything to follow their old dream. Doug repairs it for their six-year anniversary, but it's broken again after Kat comes home late from work. Finally, after the pieces help Kat remember what's most important to her and following the end credits, it's back together once more despite all the cracks.
