I still remember the feeling I had watching Destino, a short film by Salvador Dali and Disney Studios, for the first time. Almost immediately I was drawn in by the project. The very moment this happened was on a close-up shot of a face; a strangely tame moment in the surrealist project to be struck by. Something about that face felt so lovingly crafted that I was filled with a sense of awe. That feeling stayed with me through the entire six-minute run of the film.

I had the same feeling the first time I saw the trailer for Gris, the upcoming game developed by Nomada Studios. The reveal trailer opens in a similar way to Destino: an endless expanse, a mysterious humanoid structure, and a girl. The camera then zooms in on her face. A face just as lovingly crafted by its artist as the one in Destino.

The artist is Conrad Roset.

Gris and Destino differ in technique: Gris is designed to resemble watercolor paintings, and Destino is a combination of drawings and computer-generated images. Despite that, the two pieces share quite a lot. Each work features Spanish names, matter transformations, use of fauna, and impossible structures with an emphasis on the human form.

The Gris reveal trailer opens up with the heroine asleep on a statue of a hand that appears to only be standing by a major miracle. Other sculptures of people appear around the world; such as one being used as a column at the mouth of a cave. The world in which Gris takes place is also littered with floating islands and square-shaped trees that fade in and out of existence.

Destino’s architecture also places an emphasis on the human form. The opening features a woman walking toward a faceless statue. Later, the same woman is shown running up a winding incline adorned with more statues. The winding structure is then revealed to be in the shape of a woman.

Transformations are an interesting comparison between the two works since Gris needs any changes to its main character to be practical. Alterations in the player avatar have to accomplish something in-game. The main character of Gris changes her dress to suit her situation. Environments where extra weight is needed see her dress becoming a cube. Requiring a higher jump changes her dress to wings.

The twin trailers also feature what I’m assuming to be the main antagonist shifting through various states of being. A black form is seen following the player avatar around various levels. This presence is commonly seen shifting between the form of a bird and an amorphous void. The release date trailer shows more transformations by this mass. It takes the form of an eel in underwater sections, and, for a split second near the end of the trailer, it’s seen as a face.

Not bound by function, Destino’s characters’ transformations are more abstract. Ants become men riding bicycles. A baseball glove becomes a fabric heart, then a woman, then nothing at all. Women become dandelion dancers. Landscapes join together to become a man’s face. A shadow transforms into a wedding dress. Even a silhouette can be given form.

Not every similarity between the two works is rooted in staples of surrealism. Both Gris and Destino place a great importance on birds. The symbolism isn’t always the same. Gris uses them in an adversarial capacity half the time while the other half shows the heroine taking a similar form. I mentioned the main antagonist of Gris taking the shape of a bird earlier. In a lighter capacity, the heroine can be seen flying through a flock of birds. Another sequence in the release date trailer shows the shadow of the woman’s dress transforming into a flock of birds.

The birds of Destino are only ever used as a symbol of freedom. A hummingbird is seen on the statue in the beginning. That same hummingbird will come to life when the statue does, both of them gaining their freedom from the stone they were encased in. When the female and male leads are separated by ruins, the female character conjures a flock of birds to send over the wall. In doing so, she shows that no obstacle can keep them apart.



I’m not trying to say that Gris will be the video game adaptation of Destino. The game’s trailers feel lonely and dangerous while the film was always described as a love story; tonally, the two works couldn’t be more different. I’m simply attempting to highlight the similarities between the two pieces of media, one of which has left me with a similar feeling of as the other did long ago. The trailers for Gris have filled me with awe.

All images of Destino are property of The Walt Disney Company. All images of Gris are property of Nomada Studios and Devolver Digital. Gris will be available on the Switch eShop and PC on December 13. Destino is available on the Fantasia & Fantasia 2000 Special Edition Blu-ray.

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