A depressed house husband decides to take a journey into the unknown world of his own backyard.
Animals Animals Animals follows Andy, a depressed house husband, who decides to take a journey into the unknown world of his own backyard. Andy’s journey leads him to a drug induced revelation courtesy of three eccentric homeless men who identify themselves as different animals. Andy must make a choice and he does.
I really wanted the film to be a metaphor of sorts about a guy who is just stuck. He has no great purpose, he is not uncomfortable, he is actually too comfortable and what it might take for someone like that to snap out of it and remember what it is like to feel something. So the comedy really comes from the fact that he goes on this crazy sort of “Pilgrim’s Progress” like hero’s journey, but it is stylized to fit a modern setting and with psychedelics being used as the ritual drug that precedes his break through. In the end, its not an insane life altering quest, but just a quest to remember feeling and desire, and hopefully from there to live a more present and full life. Many people have asked me if all the characters are “real” or if he is just imagining them in his backyard, and I don’t think it matters they all represent different struggles that every person deals with in mental health and Andy certainly is helped by them to come to his own crossroads, and that is the main aspect of the characters that I want to come through.
We’ve all got that feeling of getting stuck in that mundane world and lifestyle at some point, and we all know how easy it is to get into that vicious loop without realizing it. Director Dave Ogle took hold of age old depressed house husband and managed to turn into a relatable, humorous and undoubtibly fantastical rebuttal. Lead by Justin Miles who sets tone in his unknown journey (couldn’t get a lost business man in a forest more right than that) and spiced up by an unexpected fiery performance by Joseph Lymous (The Unicorn). The journey is an unexpected one, and bizarrely entertaining.
