Mr. Hublot is a 2014 animated short film from Luxembourg, directed by Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares.
In some sort of steampunk future where everyone and everything is a machine, Mr. Hublot is an odd little mechanical man with a counter in his head that rolls backwards and forwards. He also has a bad case of OCD, being unable to leave his apartment until he turns the lights on and off a certain number of times. One day, Mr. Hublot notices a cute little mechanical puppy which has made its home in a box across the street. When the garbage truck eventually comes to pick up the box, Mr. Hublot races to save the dog.
Tropes:
- Big Friendly Dog: The enormous hulking monster dog that the puppy grows into is still friendly as can be, but due to his size he starts to wreck Mr. Hublot's apartment as he hops around.
- Call-Back: Mr. Hublot has difficulty opening the door because the puppy is sleeping right in front of it. Later, he has difficulty opening the door because the enormous dog is taking up the whole room.
- Canis Major: Justified in that it's a mechanical dog—but the puppy, despite being a machine, grows to the size of a gigantic dog that is several times larger than Mr. Hublot.
- Chekhov's Gun: Early in the cartoon the factory across the street is put up for sale. Following shots establish that the "For Sale" sign is still in the window, so apparently the factory has been abandoned for years. The cartoon ends with Mr. Hublot buying the factory and moving in so his dog will have room to run around.
- Cute Machines: Both of them. The puppy couldn't be cuter, the giant galumphing dog he grows into also couldn't be cuter, and Mr. Hublot himself is cute as well.
- Diesel Punk: Everything is mechanical—Mr. Hublot, the dog, the flies that the dog tries to catch, Mr. Hublot's flowers. Yet the cars and the architecture have a 1950s flavor.
- Eating Machine: Although they eat not food, but some sort of congealed oil concoction—the oily "food" can be seen to have steel nuts and bolts floating in it.
- Gentle Giant: The dog remains gentle as it grows to enormous size. It cowers when an angry Mr. Hublot reaches for a drill after the dog wrecks the room.
- Mime and Music-Only Cartoon: No dialogue.
- Precious Puppy: That is one cute, friendly little mechanical dog.
- Time-Passes Montage: A series of shots of the dog and Mr. Hublot watching TV in the same position as the dog grows from puppy to an enormous beast of a dog.
- Vertigo Effect: Done with Mr. Hublot when he sees that his gigantic dog got a little too excited and completely trashed his living room.
