ALONE BUT NOT ALONE
Beautifully animated short Here We Are provides timely solace for young and old
When my children were very young I discovered the work of Oliver Jeffers, an artist and writer from Northern Ireland. His first book, 2004’s How to Catch a Star, made for perfect bedtime reading — a short, snappy, emotional story about a little boy who wants a star of his very own.
I must have read it a 100 times, along with its followup The Way Back Home, a lost-alien tale with a little bit of The Little Prince in its DNA. Jeffers now has more than a score of books to his name, with one of the latest, Here We Are, recently made into the halfhour animated short of the same name. Despite its far-reaching subtitle, Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth is at heart a very simple journey, suitable for children of any age, and easy watching for parents as well. It opens with new parents (Chris O’Dowd, Ruth Negga), returning to their New York apartment with their newborn son, Finn.
Dad, equal parts nervous and excited, carries the baby from room to room, introducing him to the bathtub, books, bedroom, etc. We can assume he did a good job, because the next scene finds Finn a curious, outgoing seven-yearold, voiced by Jacob Tremblay.
It’s Earth Day, and the family heads to what looks like Central Park, although Finn soon finagles his parents into a trip to The Museum of Everything — clearly an amalgamation of NYC’s various institutions — where he looks agog at exhibits about the human body and space flight, before happening on a kind of theme-park cabinet of wonders. It’s a trip past a huge model of our planet — think of a cross between New York’s Panorama and EPCOT’s Spaceship Earth — narrated by Meryl Streep.
And while it’s an awe-inspiring journey, it leaves Finn feeling a little overwhelmed by the size and complexity of it all.
He needn’t worry. Streep’s voice informs him that, while we’ve already figured out a great deal about our planet and its place in the universe, there’s always more to learn and discover.
“You will figure lots of things out for yourself,” she remarks, adding wisely: “Just remember to leave notes for everybody else.”
Here We Are functions as a wondrous first step into a wider sense of cosmology and philosophy for the very young. It’s also beautifully animated; fans of Jeffers’ work will notice his influence on the design of the characters and backgrounds. Finally, as with so much else these days, its ideas can be viewed through a pandemic prism. As we hunker down in our separate solitudes, we can take solace in the words of Finn’s mom: “You’re never alone on Earth.”