Movie Review: Sidewalk

Sidewalk. What a classic.
Sidewalk is a short 4-minute, and 15-second comedy produced, animated, and directed by Celia Bullwinkel. It was uploaded to her YouTube channel on September 23, 2014, and has garnered over 900 thousand likes since. The music was produced by Josh Moshier and was first released on April 18, 2013.
We follow the story of a young girl, who I shall call Ellie. In the actual short, she remains nameless, but she looks like an Ellie to me. So Ellie starts off at home. Her mother is at her doorstep with her lunch, ready to see Ellie off for school. And, off Ellie goes. Happily, she skips along, playing games and enjoying the bliss of childhood. Then, she walks by an advert. One clearly meant to represent she's grown up a bit and is more exposed to the world. Someone's told her how a girl should act, and being an older child, she soaks it in and copies it verbatim. She's still happy though. The first signs of maturity are appearing and she's swimming in the joy of it.
Then, the lampost. It serves as a scene change, and now we see Ellie as a preteen. Ten, eleven, twelve, maybe thirteen. The most awkward years of anyone's lives. You're too old to keep doing things you've always enjoyed and people expect a solid level of maturity in you. But you're too young for everything that entices you and everyone still treats you as a baby. Middle school. Awkward body proportions. Pure confusion. No wonder Ellie looks so confused. And to add salt to the wound, the bus stop pole blesses her with puberty.
Then, the heart of the teenage years. Every teenager goes through a time where they're just upset with everything and everyone. For some, they might express it differently than others. And some, it may be more than just a phase. But on a perfectly healthy level, everyone goes through it. But, you get out of it. Hormones start to settle and your mind clears. With it, you finish maturing, as the next lampost demonstrates.
The next scene change is done by a car--how fitting. Ellie's all grown up now. Eighteen, nineteen, twenty. You have your adult body, adult rights, and adult freedom. Power move time. Ellie struts the sidewalk, ready to live her life to the fullest. But, she's discouraged by the catcalling passers-bys. Which, could easily represent the world in general. As soon as you're in the real world, it rears its ugly end and has you missing your days of teen angst. Angrily, Ellie storms off into the tree. And returns a working woman. Barely settled, she's a twenty-something-year-old barista, working her way through school, and constantly stressed. Long story short: she's just tryna feed herself every night.
Another lampost and Ellie has herself together. A sophisticated businesswoman in her thirties, strutting down the sidewalk she likely paid for herself. She's proud of the life she's built up and bumps into a businessman who matches her energy. Comfortable with life, she's ready to next be seen juggling a baby bump in front of her.
We see Ellie envy another younger woman's body for a minute before a bus runs by and treats us to a drained mother pushing around her screaming baby. Her body is thin and frail, most likely from exhaustion. Another bus passes by and her son is clearly older than she was at the beginning. Placing her second pregnancy in her late thirties/early forties. Unlike her earlier pregnancy, you can already see in her face and waist that her body won't revert as well as it did the first time. And, as many people that age have this revelation, we see her inspecting her body and thinking, "Man, I'm getting old."
So she runs. For like, two seconds. I mean, A for effort and A for keeping it realistic. She doubles over the lampost and falls into the body of a chubby, graying woman who just passed fifty. Ellie looks around, clearly dissatisfied with her body and maybe her life even. At this point, her kids are all grown up and it's easy to fall into a bland routine at that age. Ellie eyes an advert, similar to the one she saw as a young girl. And, after a bit of thought, she's made up her mind.
A car passes by, and...mid-life crisis. She puts on tight clothing, outlandish makeup, heels, and adorns herself. She struts the sidewalk like she once did a few decades ago, frightening other people and making them turn away. Eventually, a mirror catches up to her and we can see Ellie's confidence shrivel away. The next lampost gives us a woman nearing her seventies. We see her body fat comically redistribute itself as she tries to put it back, grasping at the last straws of her youth. The next lampost takes the rest of it and gives us a sweet old lady budding paths with a lost little girl. They hold hands as Ellie guides her to the tree, were they both age a few years. There, they split ways and Ellie finally walks out of the frame at last.
All in all, I've watched this at least ten times and I love it more with each go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zye28xU3F64