Weekends

This is another animated feature where the location and personalities themselves matter much less than the underlying philosophy. It presents a series of often quite emotionally-charged stories as seen through the eyes of a lad who come rain or shine leaves his mother’s home on a Friday night, gets into his dad’s car, and then they have some weekend adventures. Some of those are exciting, some more mundane, whilst meantime we learn a little of the ups and downs of the familial backstory that led us to this point. This engaging hand-drawn animation is quite a cleverly crafted piece of work that shows clearly the impact on children of a “broken” family. Aside from using the human characters, it also incorporates seasonal weather to help illustrate the emotional turmoil that prevails in their lives, and perhaps hint that things can improve with time? Sure, it can be downbeat, even a little distressing at times, but it also shows us something of the new canvas that can present itself to parents and child alike if they can approach their new situation open-mindedly.