It’s good to eat a snack while traveling. After having some trouble with a train station vending machine, an elderly woman happily takes her package of cookies and sits on a bench to await her train… “but hijinks ensue when a teenager on the platform next to her seems intent on sharing them, too.”

Eduardo Verastegui’s award-winning CGI animation Snack Attack (2012) has been viewed over 36 million times since it was shared on YouTube in 2016. Hit pause at the 3m15s mark to discuss what’s happening between the woman and the teen. Discuss again at the end of the film.

A wordless animation, Snack Attack is a perfect animated short for all ages to discuss perceptions, stereotypes, inferences, predictions, aha moments, flashbacks, and more. The film is also used in creative writing and ESL lessons, often to help express tense and time markers.

The short is said to have been based on an urban legend, but it also aligns with Valerie Cox’s poem Cookie Thief. Find discussion prompts for all ages from Badger State Speechy:

Have their thoughts been negative about someone after a mishap only to find out later that the mishap was their own fault?

Are they guilty of making a rash judgment only to find out later it was incorrect?

If they were the grandmother and had a chance to apologize to the teenager, what would they say?

Did the character traits you might have used to describe them during the first viewing of the video change when you reached the end?

Bonus: Where does compassion come from?

Snack Attack, Eduardo Verastegui’s animated short about perceptions

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