Feral (2012)

I really liked the style of animation used here as we follow the story of a “Mowgli” style of young lad who has clearly learned to survive, animalistically, in the forest. He’s having an hard time with a wolf when a hunter steps in to save the day. He takes him to his home, gives him a bath and an haircut and then promptly takes him to school where his first glimpse of the teacher sees her great big stick in hand. When it becomes clear that he has no idea what to do with a football, his classmates begin to pick on him - but they are somewhat unprepared for his innate response to their intimidation. Equally, he isn’t prepared for the school’s reaction to his reaction, so you have to wonder if perhaps he is just better off heading back to his snowy woodland by himself? There isn’t any narration but the scoring captures the moods of optimism, pessimism and realism that are depicted really quite engagingly as the young lad swaps his own more familiar conformity for that of society’s. One man’s meat…?