Sci-Fi Animated Short About a Robot Revolution: Seniors 3000

After a mishap involving her office’s slick new printer, aging pencil-pusher Marlène gets called out by her smarmy young boss. Perhaps, he suggests, if she can’t evolve with the technology, she should take herself out of the workforce entirely. As sci-fi short Seniors 3000 reveals, there is another, far wilder way!

Shared by Short of the Week, this 16-minute charmer from Julien David uses both 2D and 3D animation to weave a fantastical tale that explores some real-world themes, including ageism, the generation gap, corporate greed, and the loneliness of an empty-nester. Beyond the real world, Seniors 3000 also imagines what might happen if elderly people embraced high-tech evolution a little too much—and who might be standing by to greedily exploit them before moving on to an equally vulnerable, far younger group of people.

That story sure escalated a lot! Like, to apocalyptic levels! Two big takeaways from Marlène’s story: never underestimate the power of organization, even when it’s being done by a group of human-robot hybrids designed for highly specific purposes—and beware any manager type who’s still dabbing as a way to punctuate his sentences.

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