Wire Cutters


Two robots have to learn to work together
by Jack Anderson
English
8 Min / USA

AnimationComedy

375

The film has been incredibly popular on the internet and has been compared to the works of Pixar, but there is actually a very stark imagination working behind the short, about how greed of green rocks can destroy creatures that don’t even understand what they are doing.

The story is about two robots who complete each others, but were made by opposite companies to farm and mine a deserted-looking planet for emerald-like rocks. The smaller one is faster, has x-ray vision and kind of looks like an excited dog. The older robot has brute strength on its side, with the gigantic slowness and clumsiness of an elephant or a dinosaur. Their personalities are immediately evident in the first frames of the film by their body movements, something only the best animation can do. The animation is stellar, beautiful and with perfectly imagined details and sound-design. The scene where they realize that they have what the other needs, and form a partnership with each other is actually kind of sweet. That doesn’t last long. 

But can robots be selfish or self-serving? I mean they are mostly feeding their box which does provide each of them with life and fuel, and also a reason to live. Are they even sentient if they don’t have the perspective that can see them as they are, two sad lonely creatures on a planet doing a tedious repetitive job, that can’t even get along because of their self-serving programming. Remove the environment and this could be a very dark office comedy.

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