Director(s): Dave Mullins
Date Released: 2017
Theatrically Released Alongside: Cars 3
Lou occurs on a kindergarten playground, where a creature named Lou resides. Lou’s body is made up of an assortment of lost and found items, which it uses to travel around and pick up toys left behind by the school children. Lou’s job is to return said items to their rightful owners, yet one day it spots a bully named J.J. stealing items from his fellow classmates. Lou is angered by such actions, and sets out to stop J.J.—initially through force, but later by means of changing the boy’s heart.
Let me get my major gripe out of the way: the film’s school is terribly incompetent. What kind of school lets a kindergarten class out to recess completely unsupervised!? Clearly an idiotic one, as rampant bullying occurs (on multiple occasions) without any adults to stop it. Then, a child is left outside for what appears to be the entire period in-between recesses without anyone noticing. The school is just a hopscotch away from a lawsuit or AMBER alert.
Lou’s strength lies in its creativity. The creature’s miscellaneous body provides creative opportunities for transforming and rearranging. Lou continuously shapeshifts its body to best support the current conflict with J.J.. Lou runs like a jogger, slithers like a snake, swings from the monkey bars like a…monkey. At one point he even pulls the old “pretending to be a bystander reading a book” gag.
The short, likewise, does a good job expressing J.J.’s emotions and “gradual” (as gradual as you can get for a 6 minute short) transformation from bully to benefactor. I love the initial shrug of confusion J.J. has as he begins feeling the effects of being kind over cruel. There’s also a cute, humorous moment where J.J. gleefully gives a kid on crutches a skateboard before turning to give Lou a cheerful thumbs-up (who returns the thumbs up, albeit tentatively). Lou is an enjoyably sweet short, despite having one heck of a lousy school system.