Reversal of the Heart - Carolyn Chrisman Senior Thesis 2011

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My senior thesis film, completed after 2 years of work. It's strange to have it finally finished, but here it is! Enjoy!

Animated in Flash, After Effects, and Photoshop. Basically an all-Adobe film.

Background art: Gillian Grossman
Music: Piano Concerto No. 2 - Moderato by Rachmaninoff
Additional music composed by: Dave Volpe

[kinokodragon]

Imagine showing this to someone and being like “yeah, this is my old art.”

[stillnotfound]

"you killed my child"
"You're gonna be my child"

[Whyistomatoafruit]

That little cry the baby dragon makes right before he is killed breaks my heart every time. It literally just gets right to my core.

[Rubywing]

I only just noticed now, that the knight doesn't turn into THE baby dragon, but simply A baby dragon.
The original baby in the beginning has purple eyes and chest gem.
But when the knight turns into a baby dragon, he has BLUE eyes and a blue chest gem.
So the mother dragon didn't get her child back - she instead created a new child to raise and to give a new chance at life.
I think the reason why this change in color is so easily missed is because the colors are very similar, and because there's like 10 minutes between seeing the purple-eyed dragon and the blue-eyed dragon, so you could probably forget what color the original baby had and assume the mother remade her child using its soul and the knight's body and life force.
That's what I assumed at first, at least. But now I see that it was only a transformation of the knight, not a reincarnation of the baby.
If anything, the princess being transformed by the baby's soul was probably more of a reincarnation of it than for the knight.

[randomrexy]

Baby dragon: follows a butterfly
Disney: “The rules state that you must die now”

[mjriot]

I love how the mama dragon ignores the princess and the warlock boy because they did nothing wrong, they didn't kill her baby. Instead of going on a unbiased rampage for its death, she makes the only who did it pay the price instead of everyone and I love that :3

[justusb.plorer]

12 years later, and this animation is still beautiful.

[RavynMad]

Can’t help but notice a few frames that tell me the animator is a fan of Bambi 2 and it makes me so happy that someone else has seen and appreciates that movie too. Also love Zira as a model for the mother dragon.

[dannydowd]

The moment when the knight realized that the dragon he was hunting was his first love, and that growl that the Momma dragon to indicate “See this is how it felt like when you took my child’s life from me, and now you’ll know the life he would’ve had, the life you’ve taken away.

[d.v.]

You can _see_ the pain in her eyes when she confronts the knight with the broken gem, and you can see the realization in his eyes--he killed a baby just to get a pretty rock, and he tried to kill his lover because he doesn't see dragons as people, just animals. That's why he kneels before the Dragon Queen; he knows he fucked up and that's really the only penance he can offer; his life.

[IneedafixxReacts]

It's crazy how a person can do a bad thing to impress someone they love, just like in real life causing him to be the bad guy to someone else. Really enjoyed this story! Thanks!

[mercy.]

Who is still here in 2024? This art and the video is a incredible masterpiece I love watching it when I was younger

[gisellechausse]

I just realized: the mother dragon could've declared war on the knight and his people

But instead, she chose the measured response of meticulously teaching the knight the error of his ways by inflicting the exact same grief she felt as losing a loved one

[davidorduna]

The only bad thing about this animation is that there wasn't more of it.

[chaoticcolaa]

I refuse to believe there isn't more lore, story, or characters developed from this animation because it is too damn GOOD. Would 100% follow along this story for more content of anything with this world

[dergenmusic]

Where has this been all my life.. It’s absolutely beautiful. Not a single word spoken and yet I leave with thousands. THIS is how to tell a story. Beautiful work, truly.

[sirflycatcher]

Morals:
• evil deeds will be repaid in kind
• The ends do not always justify the means
• Do not be so quick to judge, as there is always more than what meets the eye
• poaching is bad

[frostedfelony]

I love how the mother dragon didn't kill the man out of hatred but made him the replacement, to maybe give love that she could never give to her lost child

[Rndered]

It's insane to see this again 11 years later. This was my childhood and will forever remain in my heart as one of the most unique peices of all time.

[panickedtoad]

Knight: *kills baby dragon*
Mother dragon: "hippity hoppity you are now my property"