We already live in a world governed almost totally by fear. Fear is a great way to keep people in line, to keep them buying your products, to keep them believing in whatever you want them to. But in the world of Brazilian animated film Tito and the Birds, fear is literally a disease that turns people against each other, and eventually can turn you into an immobile, petrified lump. In our exclusive clip below, we see exactly how people exploit that fear, and how others might be trying to stop it.
Tito and his friends Sarah and Buiú attempt to find a cure for the fear disease using Tito’s father’s research into the power of birdsong. As the bus traveler tells them, birds and humans used to be much more in-tune and would listen to each other, but now pigeons, or street birds, are simply “free and rejected.”
Everywhere in the city, people are constantly watching Alaor on their screens, a shady villain who spreads fear through his TV show while also making a fortune selling safe condos inside his domed (and very, very white) community. The disease of fear might be real, but so are those preying on people’s seemingly unending fear of being afraid.
Tito and the Birds opens in select cities on January 25 and in more cities February 1. It’s Brazil’s official entry for the Academy Award for best animated film, and is truly one of the most intriguing and singular animated features you’re likely to see, with its gorgeous, Edvard Munch-esque visual style and troubling but universal themes.
Images: Shout! Studios
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!
