This striking animation short is based on the "There will come soft rains" story by Ray Bradbury, which, in my book, stills stands as one of the saddest and most poignant stories ever written within the science fiction and fantasy genre. In the story, a superbly automated house still continues to serve the various inhabitants (by providing shelter, food, information, entertainment and so on) even after these inhabitants have perished in a nuclear explosion.
It's not a wholly faithful adaptation. Details have been altered ; here, for instance, there are no images of a carefree family immortalized during one titanic and lethal second. Neither is there a pet dog dying of hunger and despair. However, the animation short does succeed in evoking a deep sense of sorrow. And just like the story, it is a bitterly ironic comment on the folly of Mankind, which has provided the scientific and technological means for its own total destruction.
"Budet" is certainly watchable - I recommend it - but on the whole it might have been more successful if the central domestic robot hadn't looked so creepy and so invasive. In the story, the pre-disaster house sounds like fun ; here it must have felt like a claustrophobic nightmare even BEFORE the nuclear attack struck. It's difficult to imagine an average family living happily and comfortably in such an environment.
Modern-day viewers will feel an additional frisson upon looking at the year in which the tale is set.
It's not a wholly faithful adaptation. Details have been altered ; here, for instance, there are no images of a carefree family immortalized during one titanic and lethal second. Neither is there a pet dog dying of hunger and despair. However, the animation short does succeed in evoking a deep sense of sorrow. And just like the story, it is a bitterly ironic comment on the folly of Mankind, which has provided the scientific and technological means for its own total destruction.
"Budet" is certainly watchable - I recommend it - but on the whole it might have been more successful if the central domestic robot hadn't looked so creepy and so invasive. In the story, the pre-disaster house sounds like fun ; here it must have felt like a claustrophobic nightmare even BEFORE the nuclear attack struck. It's difficult to imagine an average family living happily and comfortably in such an environment.
Modern-day viewers will feel an additional frisson upon looking at the year in which the tale is set.