The Ape Man (2018)

Directed by: Pieter Vandenabeele | 11 minutes | short film, animation | Actors: Karlijn Sileghem, Jelle De Beule

In the short animation film ‘The Ape Man’, a garbage collector spends his evening watching Tarzan films. When he hears his own Jane – the neighbor – in distress, his inner Tarzan comes out.

The humorous tone is set quite quickly when a much too muscular Tarzan, who looks quite silly in his eyes, comes into the picture. From the couch, the main character, a round little man with a bright orange beard, looks fondly at the images of Tarzan and Jane. Oh how he would love to be Tarzan. His living room is like a jungle, with brightly colored plants and posters of Jane
on the walls. When the camera zooms out, we see that the jungle-like house is also located in a brightly colored garden with many jungle influences, on top of a drab skyscraper in a gray concrete city. The colors stand out and this contrast is nicely visualized.

All days are alike for this man. During the day he works as a garbage collector, in his spare time he can be found in his garden or he watches Tarzan at night. One day, while gardening, he suddenly hears a female voice. Suddenly he imagines himself in the jungle, looking for his Jane. When the voice starts to sound more and more desperate and an angry male voice can be heard, things get more and more serious. He must and will find his Jane and save her.

‘The Ape Man’ consists of different visual styles, but they fit together well. The images are pleasant to look at and they represent the different characters and atmospheres well.
There are a lot of humorous bits in it, like when “Tarzan & Jane” from Toy-Box starts playing. Yet the story remains clear and it does not go too far in its absurdity, something that is often the danger with animation films, because suddenly everything is possible. Perhaps ‘The Ape Man’ is a bit safe in that respect, but the twist at the end fortunately creates a pleasant commotion. It turns out that in an animated film anything is possible and anything is allowed.