A Beautiful Paper Animated Film About How a Chimp Raised as a Human Eventually Returned to the Wild

A beautiful paper animation by Elisa Chee entitled “Lucy, The Chimp Who Believed She Was Human” tells the initially sad story of a chimpanzee named Lucy who was adopted by a human couple in an odd psychological experiment. The couple received Lucy at two days old, but as she grew older and bigger, she began to lash out at the people around her. Fearing danger, the couple decided to send Lucy to an African sanctuary. Graduate student Janis Carter was enlisted to accompany Lucy and in doing so, found that Lucy was ill-prepared for interaction with other chimps, even when they were brought to an island of their own. Carter worked with Lucy for a long time to help her acclimate to her new life in the wild before she felt comfortable to leave. On a trip back to the island, Carter reunited with Lucy, noting that while she was still caught between two worlds, Lucy was finally free.

“Lucy” is an animated short film telling the true-life story of an unhappily domesticated chimpanzee, and the extreme sacrifices one woman made to set her free….“Lucy” is a short animated film chronicling the many years of struggle Janis Carter experienced in order to help Lucy gain independence and freedom in her natural habitat. Lucy was living in an in-between world – one where she was not accepted as either natural chimpanzee or fully human. No matter where she lived, Lucy would be trapped by her warped idea of herself.