Paperman analyses

Paperman is an animated short that came out in 2012 well known for merging 2d and 3d animation, creating a lively and interesting love story. The story of the movie is about two characters, a salary man, and a salary woman working in a big city. It can be assumed to take place in the 40s due to the choice of clothes and vehicles.

The plot goes as follows; the man and the woman meet at a train station. The share a moment and one of his papers flies in the woman’s face and the paper is imprinted with her lipstick. Before they can exchange any information, then the woman must leave, and the man becomes frustrated. When he arrives at his desk at work he notices the woman he met earlier is working on the other side of the street. He tries to get her attention, by throwing a lot of airplanes, but none of them seems to catch her attention. He gets more frustrated and gives up. On the ground we see all the airplanes come to life and flies over to the man dragging him along. The airplane made from the paper the women kissed tries to find her. They are both lead to the station by the planes and ends up meeting again thanks to the planes.

The tension of the story comes from the will they meet and how will they meet. The build it up throw the ritual of the man throwing all his paper planes, but not being able reach her, even when he threw the paper with a kiss on it.

The characters in the story are the salary man and salary woman. They are both good looking and both are dressed in work attire. They represent the youth of the generation. The guy is energic and acts with a lot of high energy gestures. He is very expressive and likes to show his emotion with his whole body. The woman is more reserved trying to keep her body composed.  She is curious and came willingly with the plane while the man was dragged there They are very contrasting characters. She might symbolize the new working woman in the 40s being eager to learn new things, but unsure of her surroundings.

The story takes place in the middle of a huge industrial city. Everything is portrayed in black and white except for the woman’s red lips. When they are up in the skyscrapers it symbolizes how far they are apart and how cold the concrete city is, when they are on the ground it symbolizes closeness and the humanity of the city. The train station is their meeting point where their love first began to blossom.

Through the use of light, we get a relatively positive impression of their surroundings everything is bright and friendly, the only place where lighting was used deliberately was when they showed us the planes in the alley and the darkness represented the death of their romance, but since one paper plane landed in the light it was still possible.

In conclusion I believe this film is not only about romance, but also about the difference between how men and women were in 40s and how it women working affected the life of other workers in a positive way