The Big Leap (Le Grand Saut): An Award-Winning Animated Short About a First Crush at the Beach

This is precious. Le Grand Saut is the French title, so that translates as The Big Leap and I think it’s a great name for this animated short, given that the girl protagonist takes one literally and metaphorically. It doesn’t tell a big story, but for our young protagonist, it’s something of a coming of age. A simple day at the beach. There’s the sun, the sand – and, of course, the completely annoying toddler brother that you have to look at (no doubt while the parents go an have an extended lunch at a local bar!). Perhaps that last bit is reading too much in to it, but there is another thing – the awakening of attraction. When our young heroine sees a cool young boy on the beach, it’s pretty much love at first sight – but how do you get him to notice you? There are number of outstanding features to this animated short. First and foremost, it was created without dialogue (so overcoming any possible language barrier to help achieve a bigger audience), but the animation is so subtly…