MORE by Mark Osborne 

I first saw this animated short in Science World with my dad, many years ago. Somehow, I could never forget about it. I found it a few years later and to this day, it’s just as enlightening and interesting, both artwork and core message wise. 

I think this video portrays a very important message about money, fame, and happiness and how one does not equal the other. You can’t make artificial joy or love. You can pretend it’s there, and almost even believe it, but deep down it’s gone. This also applies to artists and how they “sell out”. Once the money starts coming in, they may lose their passion and just release products that will keep making them a profit, instead of things that they are proud of.  

Although this short is relatively old, we can apply it to the modern day and social media. Nowadays, everyone has a mask on and only shows the happy moments. Nobody wants to share their low moments. We all have a filter up and make ourselves seem happier and better than we are. That’s how the inner joy gets lost. We get so caught up in the virtual world that we sometimes forget what really makes us happy. That’s something that I’ve started thinking about more after I watched this short a few more times. Our true selves are so interesting, so why can’t we show that? 

Finally, the scene of the kids having fun on the roundabout made a huge impact on me. Once we grow up, we get fed into our routines and we forget what made us happy in the first place. Pure joy gets harder to find as time goes on. Now, I don’t want to live in the grey, dull world depicted in this video. I mean, who would? But we can only stop that if we start showing our true happiness again. We need to not be afraid to be a little childish sometimes. As you grow old, you’re always under pressure to be professional. It can be stressful, so taking the time to enjoy the fun, simple parts of life is very important.  

Overall, I believe the message to be all about happiness. It can be easy to forget what really makes you happy. Never lose that internal love!