https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tEM26sOF2A
The Boy in the Bubble is a great short film worthy of award status for a couple of reasons. One, it’s a great story that carries a very big message. And two, it’s narrated by the late, great Alan Rickman. I’m not too sure when this came out but it had to have been in the last several years since Rickman passed away just last year. It was a pleasure to hear his voice again after even just this short amount of time. The story itself is one that has been told in numerous ways throughout the years but is still one that’s very enjoyable.
Being bullied is just a small portion of the story though it leads into the most important part since the lead character is a smaller boy that is seen as target and doesn’t have many, if any, real friends. Of course when he sees the fiery-haired beauty that sits next to him he’s instantly smitten and gives his heart fully to this girl as she is the object of desire that he so badly wants in his life. Yet as it turns out some girls are extremely fickle and it’s not long before she decides that he is not the one and that she wishes to terminate their relationship in the harshest manner. Hist heart broken, the boy then seeks for a way to shut the world out entirely, desiring an end to the pain and the caring. So he finds a spellbook that tells of an enchantment that can create a bubble in which he can live.
What he doesn’t figure on however is that by shutting out the world, he must do away with the good as well as the bad. While no one can hurt him in any way, he is also immune to the joys and the small pleasantries that life has to offer. Walled away in such a manner his heart turns cold, uncaring, and as a result he is all but lost to the world. Thankfully however this is not the end of the story. Instead, a girl comes walking along one day, reading a book that is very interesting to him as he sees on the cover that it is a subject upon which he has hinged much of his childhood joy. When their eyes meet he feels a brief stirring, and as she approaches his bubble he cannot help but feel that stirring fan into a flame as the one thing that could break the bubble enchantment is also the one thing that could redeem him entirely.
The presence of true love frees him from the misery of his broken heart as surely as it does from the bubble he created to wall out the rest of the world. This is the danger and the wonder of shutting yourself off from the world as Rupert does, that if you miss out on the negative and unwanted aspects, you will also miss out on the positive and wondrous things that are there to be experienced.
The heart needs no one to protect it, because in the end it will protect itself. It doesn’t hurt to have help now and then though.
Follow Us
