I’ve been complaining lately about a haze of laziness that has overcome big studio animation. With such a large talent pool, animation has felt so uninspired from both a story and art standpoint. Then comes Ross Stringer’s animated short, Crab Day, which, from the outside, looks like a series of children’s drawings…yet as they say, “Looks can be deceiving.”
Written by Aleksandra Sykulak, Crab Day refers to the annual ritual where the men of the fishing community go out to sea and bring in a massive haul from the traps during the height of crab season. The men bring their sons, now old enough to participate in this somewhat dangerous task, and literally turn them into men after killing their first crab.

“…literally turn them into men after killing their first crab.”
Our story centers on a young boy’s first trip with his father. Capturing his first crab, the boy suddenly becomes emotionally attached to the crab. As the team heads to shore for the crab-killing ceremony, the boy’s crab has weirdly gone missing. His father’s disappointment weighs heavily on the boy…or does it?
From the outside, Crab Day appears to be just a series of simple line drawings. Nothing special, only in the sense that I could draw these characters and backgrounds myself. But what animator Ross Stringer does that I can’t do is not only bring these line drawings to life but also give them emotion. Look, the characters’ faces are essential circles with two vertical lines for eyes, and yet you feel the sense of disapproval from the father. You then feel the confusion in the young boy, and it’s all done through body language and the film’s incredible sound design.
Crab Day shows that even though animation looks easy…it’s not. When you reduce art to simple character outlines, you realize that it’s art blended with action that gets the point across.