A fun story of noisy neighbours!
A bat shares its tree with a mother bird and her chicks, but the bird’s daytime food collection keeps the bat awake following its night shift. One night, the bat returns from one of his nightly food quests and slips into the hole of the trunk where the chicks are housed. In the morning, mother bird doesn’t hear her chicks - has the bat has done something terrible…?
Genre: Comedy
Country of Origin: Finland
Medium/Content: 3D Animation, Colour, Sound, Fiction
Clip Length: 07:00
Age Group: P1-P4
When and how do we first meet the bat? What kind of a character do you think the bat is? What words can you use to describe the bat?
How do the characters change during the film? What happens to make them change?
Who is good and who is bad in the story? Explain and justify responses.
Use freeze frame and a Spot the Shots worksheet to identify different shots at different points in the story. Where is the camera in these shots? Compare the use of long shots and close-ups at different moments.
Note the way the film uses colour to suggest character and setting. How do the colours change to show the time of day or night in the story? Which colours do you associate with the bat? The bird? The bat is black and red: how does this make you feel when you first see it?
Discuss ways the film shows the passage of time. Look at the technique of ‘fade in/out’ and relate colour and light to the sequence or action.
Listen to the soundtrack to 04:58 minutes into the film. Identify the different sounds. You could provide a list of sounds – flapping, sighing, tapping and so on – and ask them to tick the word when the sound is heard.) Discuss the ‘sound story’ of the film. What sounds can you hear that are made by characters or things in the story? What sounds can you hear that have been added to the film, not made by anyone or anything on screen? How does silence create an atmosphere?
How does the music change when different characters are on screen? How does this help to tell the story? How does the music make you feel?
Discuss the structure of the story: what happens at the beginning of the story; and at the end of the story. What are the most important events, things that happen in the story? What do you think happens after the end of the story?
Look for moments when we see events through the eyes of one of the characters. How does it make us feel?
Watch the film to 4:58. How did you feel when you saw the bat going into the hole?
How do we know when night becomes day? In your day, how do you know when it is time to get up/go to bed?
* Find out about and experience the materials used in the animation: create clay, playdough or Plasticine characters for a film.
* Create a simple storyboard, retelling the story, with captions.
Genre: Comedy
Country of Origin: Finland
Medium/Content: 3D Animation, Colour, Sound, Fiction
Clip Length: 07:00
Education Level: First Level
