Rex (short film)

Rex is an animated short film produced by Dude In A Hat Productions. The story is a retelling of Oedipus Rex, which is one of the darkest and most twisted Greek myths ever told.

Plot
A king finds out his queen is pregnant and is overjoyed at the news, hiring an Oracle to tell him if it will be a boy or a girl. However, instead, the Oracle reveals that his son will kill the king when he's older. Because of this, when the child is born they abandon him, though both are heartbroken at the fact. The newborn is almost eaten by wolves but is saved by a man in green who takes him away and gives him to a different king and queen, who name him Oedipus Rex.

Years later, Oedipus is tormented by rumours that he isn't the actual son of the king and queen and decides to prove everyone wrong by visiting an Oracle. Oedipus demands to know if he really is their son. However, instead, the Oracle tells him that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus, not wanting this to happen, packs up his clothes and runs away from his home. The next morning, Oedipus is attacked by bandits while eating his food and slaughters them all before moving on, finding a kingdom in ruins. A dying old man points to the one who has done this: a Sphinx.

Oedipus, not wanting the Sphinx to continue her evil reign challenges her to a game. The Sphinx chooses a game of riddles and delivers those famous words: "what has four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon and three in the evening?" Oedipus thinks about it for a bit before answering that it's man. The Sphinx, unable to take the fact that a human had bested her, jumps off of a cliff and plummets to her death. After this, the kingdom makes Oedipus their new king, as their old one had gone missing, and he marries the queen to make it official.

A while later, Oedipus is wondering what actually happened to the old king and hires and Oracle to tell him. It turns out that the Oracle he hired is the same one from before. Oedipus is clearly upset just at the sight of her and becomes even more upset when the Oracle claims that Oedipus killed the old king. Everyone is shocked by this, with Oedipus beginning to put the pieces together, realizing that one of the bandits he killed was actually the king and his horrifying suspicions are confirmed when the Oracle reveals that the queen is his real mother and that the king he killed was his father. Meaning that the Oracle was right, Oedipus has killed his father and married his mother. Everyone who hears this goes mad, with the queen stabbing herself to death and Oedipus stabbing himself in the eyes before running off screaming into the forest, never to be seen again.

Cast

 * Crispin Freeman as Oedipus Rex
 * Laura Bailey as The Sphinx
 * Tara Strong as The Oracle

Production
The film was meant to be as loyal to the myth as possible, with the story becoming very uncomfortable due to this. It was almost not made due to the themes of the original story, but eventually, the creators won out and around April 6 the film was put into production. The film is almost completely silent. The Oracle is the one who gets the most dialogue, having only 28 words and 5 sentences. The main character has even less dialogue, only saying 9 words and 3 sentences. The Sphinx was only cast to deliver her now famous riddle. Because of this, all three actors who have worked on the project have made the joke that it was a fast way of getting a paycheck.