M.U.R.B.Y
2023 · 9m · Singapore
Directed by Jonyl Tan, Arcilla Meghan Setyabudi
Genres: animation, comedy, fantasy
Tones: absurdist, tender, whimsical
In a world where dogs eat rare feathers to transform into mighty wolves, a lonesome dog named Rob steals a bag of precious M.U.R.B.Y feathers to chase his dream — until the wind scatters them and a strange swamp encounter forces him to weigh ambition against companionship.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Most animated shorts about self-discovery hit the same emotional beats—not this one. The feather-as-currency mythology is genuinely weird and specific enough to feel earned rather than borrowed, and the film trusts that weirdness to do the moral work without spelling it out.
There's a deliberate restraint in the visual language here—hand-crafted, deliberately modest in scope—that recalls a lineage of small-scale animation that values suggestion over spectacle; the swamp encounter particularly echoes that tradition of using landscape as moral geography.
The choice to scatter the feathers on the wind rather than force a confrontation is the entire film—a sound design and editing decision that transforms what could've been a generic heist-and-redemption into something about accepting loss, and it's all communicated through that one environmental moment.
Reviews
A playfully poignant animation that revolves around Rob, a lonesome dog, who steals a bag of rare feathers — the M.U.R.B.Y feathers — to achieve his dreams of becoming the most magnificent wolf.
Festivals
- CinemaSHORT Asian Short Film Competition 2023, Jury Award
- Singapore Shorts (Asian Film Archive) 2024
- Singapore Youth Film Festival 2024