The clear metaphor (IMHO) was pet death, of letting go of the creature you love.
I thought the imagery of cats flying off wasn't enough to support a story this long. It was cool, but maybe could've been done in flash form?
I also was a bit thrown by Frankie. At first I thought he was a kid (since the intro said the story was rated G), and then I thought he was an adult, and it wasn't until later that it was revealed he was an older man. This is something that, if this was an episode of "The Twilight Zone" (for example), would've been obvious from the get-go and would've changed the way I experienced the story.
QuoteThe clear metaphor (IMHO) was pet death, of letting go of the creature you love.
I really don't think that was the intended message.
I thought the imagery of cats flying off wasn't enough to support a story this long. It was cool, but maybe could've been done in flash form?
I also was a bit thrown by Frankie. At first I thought he was a kid (since the intro said the story was rated G), and then I thought he was an adult, and it wasn't until later that it was revealed he was an older man. This is something that, if this was an episode of "The Twilight Zone" (for example), would've been obvious from the get-go and would've changed the way I experienced the story.
The cats just floated away, except for Frankie's cat, who inexplicably managed to stick around just a bit before getting permission to float off. Also, I spent the first third of the story thinking that Frankie was about 10, the second third thinking he was 40 and it wasn't until the last third that I finally placed him correctly as an old man. I agree with others, this probably would have worked much better as flash, where there's a lot more room for stories consisting solely of "look, a weird thing just happened."
Bad timing. This episode was released two days after I found out that my 20-year-old, cat (Lucy) had fast-growing, virulent cancer, and would likely only live another week or two. (It was right at 1.5 when I had to take her back to the vet.)
I'm a little startled by the apparently uniform negative reaction it got.