Boundin’ (2004)

Directed by: Bud Luckey, Roger Gould | 4 minutes | animation, short film | English voice cast: Bud Lucky

The short film ‘Boundin’ has a somewhat unusual form and content for a Pixar film. There is a remarkable amount of text in the film, which is recited to music and rhyme. This is nice for the Sinterklaas season and quite charming, but combined with the content of the film it makes for a somewhat conventional and moralistic whole. No fancy jokes, wry irony, or even interesting tragedy in this Pixar video, but a very obvious lesson in self-acceptance. The animation is cute and the ongoing country music is upbeat, but the message is very “Disney”, and the movie lacks the characteristic humor and inventive ideas that viewers have come to expect from Pixar.

The main character is played by a sheep that normally jumps happily and tap dances, with all the animals around him – fish, owls, snakes, marmots – but gets the shock of his life when he is suddenly sheared in the summer and if a little pink stingy remains. He can no longer show himself because he is only laughed at. Fortunately, a strange beast called “Jackalope” offers moral support. This beast – a burly rabbit with antlers – teaches the depressed sheep how to, or should, be at peace with his newfound appearance. Like the Jackalope, he can make gigantic jumps and bounce back happily as before.

Now it’s funny to see the thin body of the shearling reach great heights for the first time with the help of the bounce tips of the Jackalope, but unfortunately it’s all a bit too simple and too well behaved. It is a warm message and for the children it is probably a pleasant film with all those nice animals and the banjo music in the background, but for the adult viewer ‘Boundin’ must still be a disappointment.