Alma is a 2009 animated short by ex-Pixar animator Rodrigo Blaas. In it, a little girl named Alma is roaming the streets of Barcelona in the winter. Her curiosity is sparked when she sees a doll that looks exactly like her in the window of a toy store. But she might get a surprise when she goes in to get it...
In 2010, it was announced that DreamWorks Animation was developing a full-length animated film based on the short. No further information has been revealed since, however.
It can be viewed here
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This short contains examples of:
- Ambiguous Situation:
- Is there an unseen person running this strange toy shop that lures in children and turns them into dolls, or is the toy shop itself alive and doing the transforming? The front window does resemble an open mouth ...
- Are the dolls alive before the children's souls get trapped in them? Alma's doll repeatedly teleports around the shop to lure her in, and when she touches it, its eyes move toward her hand briefly. And if they are alive, what happens to them after the children begin inhabiting their bodies?
- Ancient Evil: The children transformed into dolls are wearing clothing styles from many different countries and time periods, implying the toy shop and whoever's operating it has been around for hundreds of years.
- And I Must Scream: Upon becoming trapped inside dolls, Alma and the other children can only move their eyes.
- Art-Style Dissonance: It's a seemingly cute short by a former Pixar animator...that ends with the main character becoming trapped inside the body of a doll, alongside numerous other children who have met the same fate.Cracked: We're just gonna go out on a limb here and guess that the reason Rodrigo Blaas doesn't work at Pixar anymore was less "seeking new opportunities" and more like "We are terrified of what you may do to us in our sleep."
- Bilingual Bonus: Spanish-speaking viewers will notice that the signs on the wall Alma passes by are marked with the word peligro, meaning "danger."
- Can Only Move the Eyes: When Alma becomes the doll, the only parts of her that can still move are her plastic eyes.
- Creepy Doll: The doll resembling Alma looks somewhat...off, not helped by the unsettling music that plays during a close-up of its face.
- Creepy Twins: Two of the dolls in the shop are a pair of twin girl dolls in black dresses that move their eyes to look at Alma as she climbs up to grab the doll of herself.
- Curiosity Is a Crapshoot: Alma's curiosity when she sees a doll in a toy store that looks exactly like her gets her turned into a doll.
- Downer Ending: Alma becomes trapped inside the body of her doll, alongside many other children who have met the same fate. Another doll appears in the storefront to lure in the toy shop’s next victim. Roll credits.
- Evil Is Not Well-Lit: The toy shop has no light sources inside and is particularly dark in the back, where the biggest toy shelf with the most dolls is.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: After entering the toy shop, Alma trips over a fallen wind-up doll of a boy on a bike. When she picks it up and puts it on the floor, it immediately tries to drive towards the door, which slams shut before it can escape.
- Foreshadowing: At the beginning of the short, Alma passes by several posters for missing children and multiple signs with the word peligro on them, Spanish for "danger."
- Free-Range Children: Alma, a little girl, is running around in the middle of town without any adult supervision. Maybe if she had someone with her, she wouldn’t have fallen into the clutches of the toy shop.
- Genius Loci: The toy shop seems to have a mind of its own. It opens the door right after Alma throws a snowball at it in frustration, closes it behind her after she walks in, and later, closes again to prevent the doll on the bike from escaping.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Who in the world is running this toy shop that traps children and turns them into dolls? We have no idea.
- Here We Go Again!: The film ends with another doll, resembling a brunette girl in a red coat, appearing in the storefront window.
- I Know Your True Name: Seeing a wall covered in many names, all written in chalk, Alma adds her own name. These names are implied to be those of the children who entered the toy shop and became trapped in the dolls, which also implies that writing your name on the wall marks you as the toy shop’s next victim.
- Meaningful Name: "Alma" is the Spanish word for "soul". Quite appropriate for a story about souls being trapped inside dolls.
- Mini-Me: The plot is kicked off by Alma seeing a doll that looks exactly like her in the toy shop’s window, and entering the store to get it.
- Offscreen Teleportation: The doll of Alma repeatedly disappears and reappears in various places when she looks away.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: At the end of the short, cheerful music plays as the camera pans over Alma, now trapped inside the doll, and the many, many other dolls housing the souls of trapped children, all moving their eyes back and forth in terror.
- Subverted Kids' Show: It looks just like a cute, harmless Pixar-style short until the terrifying ending where Alma gets trapped in the doll.
- Toy Transmutation: Touching the doll that looks like her instantly transforms Alma into the doll.
- The Voiceless: Alma never says a word or makes a noise throughout the short, aside from some panicked breathing briefly heard when she becomes a doll.
