The Box is a 1967 animated short film directed by Fred Wolf.
A little old man wearing a yellow raincoat walks through the rain carrying a box. He walks into a bar and has a drink, setting his box down on the bar beside him. Another man enters the bar, and badgers the little old man to see what's in the box—and when he sees, he's grossed out. A sexy woman enters and also wants to see what's in the box—she leaves in a huff after pulling out a wet hand. The box is eventually revealed to contain some sort of odd small animal. Finally, a third person enters the bar, a redhead woman who is also wearing a yellow raincoat, and has a box of her own.
No connection to either the feature length live-action thriller The Box or the Richard Matheson short story that inspired that film, "Button, Button".
Tropes:
- The Ark: Seen at the end, when we find out why it's raining and why the old man is carrying around an animal in a box.
- Chekhov's Gun: Notice how it's pouring rain at the beginning of the cartoon? That's important.
- The Great Flood: Strongly implied that the rain we see in the cartoon is the Great Flood just getting started.
- Limited Animation: Rather crudely drawn, with a White Void Room background.
- May–December Romance: The redheaded woman is gorgeous and curvy and clearly decades younger than the old man. They kiss before going off to the ark together.
- Mime and Music-Only Cartoon: Only a drum for music, in fact.
- Miniature Senior Citizens: The old man is your typical gnome-like figure, much shorter than the younger adults in the bar.
- Rule of Three: Three people sit next to the old man at the bar—a man who wants to know what's in the box, a woman who wants to know what's in the box, and another woman who has her own box.
- Twist Ending: The little old man might be Noah, and the box contains some kind of animal meant for the ark. The redhead woman's identical animal in the box appears to complete a mating pair for the ark.
- White Void Room: The entirety of the bar is a white void room, except for the man, his drinking companions, and the bar itself. We don't even see the bartender; drinks simply appear out of nowhere.
