Shave It

Film commentary: Shave It

A very dynamic and colourful cartoon to watch with the whole family.
This educational and entertaining film is an excellent way to reflect on the relationship between nature and culture, but also on what separates apes from humans.

Could a simple electric razor change the future of apes? This is an interesting assumption when we know that primates also entered the Stone Age 5000 years ago. Primate archaeology has indeed uncovered stone objects, such as those carved by our ancestors, except that these were made and used not by humans but by primates. Today, the observation of primates in the wild or in zoos confirms that primates such as chimpanzees, bonobos and macaques are capable of transforming stones into tools. Other studies show that, although primates have not yet mastered fire (they cannot create a fire by themselves), they understand the transformation process that allows them to go from raw food to cooked food, and that, if we provide them with the necessary objects, they are quite capable of cooking their own food. This is therefore a very good subject for children in kindergarten to put the human-animal separation into perspective and to put it in the context of the life of our planet: primates are very close to the first hominids (2.5 million years ago).

The deforestation of the Amazon forest, which consists of converting wooded areas into agricultural fields, is also a very interesting subject for children to study. In ten years, the area of forest lost in the Amazon has reached the total surface of France (about 500,000 km2). No wonder the hero of this very funny film wants to take his revenge!


For the record, the idea for the film came after one of the creators of the 3dar studio decided to tattoo himself by shaving certain parts of his body!

Watch the making of

Behind the Scenes

Discover the other films of the studio 3dar

http://www.3dar.com

Interview with the director

Discover the dreamlike world of Jorge Tereso

Question the film: Shave it

Understand the story, the theme, express your sensibility and exercise your critical mind.

Deforestation and the excessive exploitation of the forests are challenging the balance of our planet. The main cause of the disappearance of many plant and animal species, it threatens biodiversity.
About 60% of monkey species are now threatened with extinction.
Download the PDF file on deforestation...

"The situation of monkeys is much more serious than we imagined"
Russell A.Mittermeier, Chair of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group

How can we raise awareness of the seriousness of the situation?

1 Who is the main character in the film?
A monkey who leaves the forest and discovers human society.
2 What does the monkey discover at the beginning of the film?
An electric razor in a toilet bag.
3 What does this remind him of?
The razor reminds him of the Bulldozers razing the forest.
4 How does he feel?
He is angry.He feels a sense of revenge.
5 What does he decide to do?
He decides to shave his whole body.
6 Does he change his behaviour?
Yes, he decides to discover the city, to dress and work like humans.
He works a lot and becomes the president of a big company (1 min 34 s).
7 What does he do once he is president?
He starts to look like the stereotypical macho, luxury-hungry man.
He takes up hobbies such as boating, skydiving and space travel.
8 What happens when the monkey discovers the little park in the city?
The monkey sees himself as a baby in the forest with the bulldozers.
9 What does he decide to do?
He decides to take revenge on the bulldozers in his home forest and invents a bulldozer to raze the buildings to the ground to make room for nature in the city.
10 What is thefilm about?
Large-scale deforestation and its consequences.
11 The authors of the film are from South America (Argentines); does the film remind you of a real situation?
Deforestation in the Amazon (even though Argentina is not part of the Amazon).
12 Should we protect the forests? Create more parks in cities?
Open question / debate.

Download the PDF of the film's educational activities

Created with the support of the Ministry of Education and the CNC.
Viewing of the film with the family, educational activities with parents at home and with teachers in class.
Understanding the main causes of deforestation (EMC) (Cycle 2 and 3)
Educational activities proposed by Christophe Defaye based on the film Shave it.
Debating our relationship with animals (Questioning the world) (Cycle 2 and 3)
Educational activities proposed by Olivier Defaye based on the film Shave it.

Discover other educational sheets created with the support of the French Ministry of Education and the CNC...