‘Bottle George’ is a wonderful stop-motion short that explores the relationship between a young girl struggling with her fear of her alcoholic father and a small creature trapped inside a bottle.
The girl and her father are poor and live with a mischievous cat who offers some comic relief in a mostly serious film intent on depicting both the sickness that is associated with alcohol addiction and human resilience. I thought the storytelling was beautifully done allowing for empathy and compassion.
Director & co-writer Dice Tsutsumi said: “In this film, there are a lot of things that are unexplained and unresolved, even with the cat, and audiences might be wondering, ‘What the hell?’. It’s not a happily-ever-after kind of ending. But there is hope. And, in a way, this story is also about letting go of control and holding onto hope. This family may not be perfect, and they may have many challenges ahead, but they have each other and they have hope.”