What is the theme of the short film Mr. Hublot?

What is the theme of the Academy Award 2013 best animated short film winner "Mr. Hublot"? I saw that film two days before, but I can't get the theme of the film. A man sees the dog outside the window after he destroys the place of the dog, he adopts the dog and feeds him, the dog grows big after some days and he shift his place to a new big house.

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Best Answer

The theme was simply to show the change somebody like Mr Hublot was having to go through due to his pet (think of it as an animated version of As Good As It Gets!

Hublot has quite severe OCD. He appears to be petrified of change and doesn't really like being outside. He has his own space and he's comfortable with that. (choosing to work from home). This is his normal life.

Then, he sees the dog and notices it is about to be crushed. He chooses to rescue the dog which throws his whole life into a spiral, particularly as the animal gets bigger and bigger.

This blog, involving quotes from the film's director, gives an indication of what the production team were trying to achieve:

Meanwhile, the ever-expanding Robo Pet provided the most difficult challenge in Mr. Hublot. For the OCD character afraid of change, it poses a real dilemma. Does he get rid of the pet or the house?

"It's at this moment that we can feel there is something changing in their relationship," Witz explains. "It's about 10 shots when he's growing. We tried a lot of things with scale to have the right size of the dog. The bigger the dog, the better. For me, it was as if he touched the ceiling with his head. It can't be bigger or something will go wrong."

Witz plays against convention in that it's not a monster that's growing, but an endearing pet. He says it's a statement about dog owners loving their young dogs but not as much when they're fully grown and demand more attention. When you have a pet you can't imagine what will happen next beyond just being cute.

So once the dog is the size of the house, Mr Hublot has a life changing decision to make. Does he get rid of the dog or change his own lifetime habits? The former is much easier, but would rid him of his new companion who brings him so much joy. The latter would be incredibly difficult, requiring him to embrace change and accept venturing out into the world to find a new place and change his lifestyle.

As the film beautifully shows, he chooses the latter, preferring to embrace the change having the pet brings rather than continuing his lonely lifestyle.

So I would argue the themes include: Embracing change, overcoming obstacles and developing friendship.