This bright and fun animated short tells the tale of a little girl pondering what non-existence is as she watches her ice cream treat slowly run down her hand. I’m an easy sell on ParaNorman or Coraline–esque darkness, the kind of old-school movies for kids that weave loss and the fragility of life in with visually pleasing hijinks, and this reminds of those kinds of things. While Melted isn’t stop-motion or focused on anything outside of this little girl’s moment with her dying ice cream there’s a macabre streak which certainly appeals to me.

Melted could easily be the start of a wonderfully creepy & enjoyable animated movie involving mysterious ice cream-related disappearances and the kids who solve them, Scooby Doo-style, but I’ll stop myself there before I get deeper into what sounds like a pretty fun kids’ movie. Anyway, this one’s less than two minutes from start to finish and as I’ve said it’s easily worth that time spent so I’m not entirely sure what else you need to know–get to watching via the link below! 

8 out of 10 Slowly Dying Ice Cream Treats

Also, if you’re into giving shorts of varying lengths a shot go ahead and click the “short films” tag below to tour some others. There are definitely worse ways to spend a few minutes at a time!