Jan 18, 2024

This short animation provides an alternative to the toilet doom-scroll for frustrated office workers.

Almost all of us have had the experience of going about our daily business feeling like an outsider, under the watchful and judgmental eye of a helicopter manager. For those who have, I recommend the three-minute animated short “ESC.

“ESC.” requires no dialogue to tell its incredibly relatable story. Instead, writer/director Sam Southward uses vibrant, glossy CG animation to tell the story of an overworked woman whose world is constantly closing in around her.

For much of the film, the protagonist relies on doom-scrolling bathroom breaks to escape the stress of her job. However, this proves to be an inadequate solution to her existential fears. Eventually, things fall apart before this young woman has a breakthrough, and she realizes that she should shift her focus to what is important to her.

The characters in “ESC.” have a plastic look that gives them a nostalgic stop-motion aesthetic. Aardman's influence can be seen in both the protagonist and his boss. The small but highly detailed set creates a world that will feel familiar to anyone who has ever worked in a cubicle, and most frames have delightful details that cannot be observed on first viewing, encouraging re-watching.

German design studio Foreal created a short film about Southward as the title sequence for last year's OFFF festival in Mexico.