99 Red Ballons

Well...Not really when thinking of the film and its title it's the first thing that pops into my mind. Though the film "The Red Balloon" and this song are unrelated or are they.  Looking at the songs lyrics it's about 99 Balloons that  are mistaken for UFO's and then shot down by pilots. This show of force then  proves a war that last 99 years.

The songs upbeat mood would suggest a more happy experience if one doesn't look at the lyrics. When one thinks of balloons you get joyful images usually of childhood, but not always. In the film the balloon is childhood personified it's whimsical and playful.  In the song it is the same,but it takes a dark turn and at first they start of as an unknown entity.

Both the song and the film use a fairly mundane object to tell a compelling and interesting story. In the film the balloon  is mostly whimsical and playful presenting childhood. Though the symbol of the balloon could also be taken as sad in that the child is alone and just plays by himself with his balloon. The other sad thing is that the other children take  his fun away and instead of being gentle with the balloon try their best to pop it missing the beauty of it.  In the song the pilots want to shoot down the balloons to put on an entertaining show. This backfires on them and starts a war.

To move away from this song the film "The Red Balloon" also reminds me of the shorts "The Blue Umbrella" and  "PaperMan"

"The Blue Umbrella" is a story of the titular blue umbrella and a red umbrella which are seemingly magical and fall in love while the human characters are blissfully unaware of the magic in the mundane.

 

Adam WarRock-PaperMan

 "Paperman" is another case of mundane objects coming alive in magical wonder. In this case it is paper air planes coming alive and leading two people that meet each other earlier in the day back together. What all of these things share in common is an enchaining and coming alive of the everyday. I think the message of these all is that there is lots of wonder in our everyday even if we don't think about it.  It may not be as wonderfully magic as these films,but it's out there or it might be that's up to you to decided

"The Red Balloon" is an innocence in childhood and about our amazement in that time. It shows though the adversity face then and now all that can be overcome. The time the boy in the film is most happy is when he's interacting with his balloon and just being a child. He;s naturally curious and wandering the streets,eating sweets embracing childhood plus most importantly his life. I noticed in the film there is kind of an "old yeller moment" where the boy stomps on the balloon letting go of it when he notices that it's in poor condition.  It's a lesson in hard choices and learning to let go and how that can often lead to a reward. Though it's all out of a genuine care and not a cynical one.

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