Elinor Floyd

Stop and Smell the Roses

“The Lost Thing” is an animated Academy Award-winning film short by Shaun Tan. When watching this short film with limited vocabulary, it really gave the audience leeway as to how to interpret the true meaning. I believe the film does this so that viewers can apply various aspects of their own lives to what they are watching in order to gain a deeper individual connection. As for my own interpretation, this film is about a man, living in a world full of busy people whose lives are consumed by monotonous routine. In the beginning of the film, the man stops for a minute and finds something unique and unexpected. He finds the Lost Thing. The Lost Thing is a bulky red, metal-looking object with tentacles, and different parts that hang off of it in unusual ways. When the man comes across the Lost Thing, it is sitting on the coast of a beach, looking very out of place and lonely.

Once the man finds the Lost Thing, he walks about it in a curious manner for a little while trying to figure out what it is, then he greets it. They proceed to play catch for a few hours, and then the man, who feels bad for the Lost Thing, decides to befriend the Lost Thing and help find it’s home. The man consults his friend who performs experiments to find out exactly what the Lost Thing is, but he comes to no conclusion. The man tries taking the Lost Thing home, but his parents do not want or understand it. The man attempts to hide the Lost Thing in his shed, and take it to other places, but unfortunately, he finds no home for it. As a last-ditch effort, he takes the Lost Thing to a facility for lost things, but is told by a janitor-looking-thing to not leave behind the Lost Thing.

As the storyline continues, the man and the Lost Thing end up following squiggly arrows until they reach the place where all lost things belong. When the door opens up to this new world, colors flood the screen and a plethora of lost things of various bright colors and structures are running around. This place, though full of lost things, has such a warm and blissful atmosphere that makes its viewers feel connected and happy for the lost things. In my own opinion, I believe that the world of lost things is so much better-off and interesting than the world from which the man belongs. The man’s world is mundane and lacks any kind of vivacity. I do not empathize with the Lost Thing, but instead I feel bad for the man because after helping the Lost Thing find his home in the colorful world, he must return to the dull and humdrum world that he belongs to.

In conclusion, the common saying “stop and smell the roses” comes to mind when I think about this film short. I find that it can be applied in two different ways to help reveal the true meaning. First off, we must “stop”.  Once the man veers away from his typical routine and stops, he finds the Lost Thing. This gives us the message to take time from our busy days and be mindful of the world that surrounds us. There is so much beauty that embodies this world that is often times blinded by the confines of our busy routines. This leads me to the second meaning behind the film and to the last part of the saying; “smell the roses.” It is one thing to stop and quickly observe what is going on, but to really appreciate something we have to take the time to get to know it. The man gets to know the Lost Thing and in turn, his eyes are opened up to a new diverse world full of color and cheerfulness. When everything is the same it is so boring. Once he “smell the roses” and tries something new, he gains a greater appreciation for something that he would have missed had he not “stopped” and continued to be blinded by his tedious, boring, and routine life.