If Anything Happens I Love You — Fantasy/Animation

**Fig. 1 - *If Anything Happens I Love You* (Will McCormack and Michael Govier, 2020).**

A school shooting is every parent’s worst nightmare. Unfortunately, this nightmare is real for many parents in the United States. According to researchers at Education Week, in 2024, there were 39 recorded school shootings resulting in injuries or death; so far in 2025, there have been 3 events relating to gun violence on school grounds in the US (“School Shootings Over Time”). The persistence of school shootings in the US and the fear and grief they cause are extremely devastating to students and affected families. Communities like Mothers Against Gun Violence, Americans for Responsible Solutions, and Sandy Hook Promise demand change for schools and gun legislation. In this blog, I will analyze the use of colour and sound in Will McCormack and Michael Govier’s animated short If Anything Happens I Love You (2020), reflecting on how these elements of style convey a harrowing outlook on school shootings (Fig. 1).

When viewing If Anything Happens I Love You, it is hard not to think about the context of the short. It is a sad, angry path when the audience realises what the short is about: a school shooting. Gun violence, including school shootings, remains a persistent problem across the United States. The first school shooting in the US occurred in 1764 during the Pontiac Rebellion at the Enoch Brown School Massacre (Glavin 2018). School shootings have occurred consistently up to the present day, and will continue until some form of top-down legislation is passed. Many communities and public media outlets are advocating for gun reform through various channels. Yet McCormack and Govier’s animation advocates for gun reform in its own way, focusing on the external effects and the emotions that a victim’s community may experience, given how the impact of school shootings can ultimately extend to nurses and other hospital staff who treat the victims (McCall 2020). Many emergency nurses reported feelings of “secondary traumatic stress” and “nightmares” after caring for victims of a school shooting (McCall 2020). This reflects how gun violence and school shootings in America are an epidemic that impacts all communities, whether that is the parents of a child victim (shown directly in the animation) or the hospital staff who are involved in the aftermath of the incident.

Fig. 2 - Images of grief in *If Anything Happens I Love You.*

Knowing the context of school shootings in America allows the audience to better understand McCormack and Govier’s animated short. The film follows parents after they lose their daughter in a school shooting and tells the story of their bittersweet journey of grief, acceptance, and coming together as a family after a tragedy. It emphasises the emotional toll experienced by those outside the shooting instead of highlighting statistical facts that are heard over and over again. This is a different approach than those taken by other media outlets, as a Parkland School Shooting study suggests that “[local media outlets] tend to focus on the [victim and shooter facts], while national media outlets tend to focus on macro issues related to shootings such as gun control,” (LaRose, Torres, and Barton 2021). While the current media framing of school shootings is changing and has been since the Parkland shooting in February of 2018, it is still focused mainly on statistical facts and not drawing emotion and empathy from the readers (LaRose, Torres, and Barton 2021). The difference in how McCormack and Govier’s animation informs audiences about the effects of school shootings creates a stronger emotional reaction, allowing more attention and concern to be brought to the topic of gun violence in the US.

If Anything Happens I Love You uses stylistic elements of colour and sound to make the difficult topic of school shootings more accessible to those who cannot initially understand the grief that those affected feel (Fig. 2). An example of the faultless use of animated style is the sequence in which the daughter enters the school (which takes place during the parents’ memories). When the little girl walks into the building, a school bell rings, and the shot changes to show a brightly coloured American Flag above a grey school hallway. The flag catches the audience’s eye, as it’s the only element of colour in the scene, providing context for what is to come. The film stays on this image of the flag as the sound of gunshots and children’s screams begin to flood the audio. As the daughter types out a text message, even the shaky clicks of her typing can be heard. The screen goes black, and a final, loud gunshot is fired. The audio is unsettling and causes a visceral reaction in the audience. However, McCormack and Govier can use these images and sounds of violence because it is captured in an animation, which is often perceived as a ‘soft’ medium. Using it in a ‘soft’ medium can make the sound (and the events they connote) seem less revolting and more like a call for help. Such techniques also send a powerful message against gun violence and devastating events like school shootings that take place in the US. The stark difference between the colour of the American Flag and the school’s surrounding grey wall draws attention to the patriotic colours. While mimicking the red, white, and blue design of the American flag, these colours represent the freedom and safety the United States promises its citizens. However, in this animation, the colours of the flag stand out as a message to the US government and the many people demanding change, because gun violence of this magnitude only happens in the United States. The use of colour and sound in this sequence illustrates the effectiveness of animation when making difficult topics more understandable, even potent, to those who may struggle with them.

**Fig. 3 - The daughter’s shirt in *If Anything Happens I Love You*.**

In addition to the sounds heard throughout the short, the background music is also important as it helps create the feeling of grief that the parents experience. An example of this at the beginning of the short is when sombre piano music plays in the background to mimic and define the parents’ emotions; however, the music stops when the mother discovers the daughter’s shirt in the laundry (Fig. 3). The breaking of sound in this sequence is shocking, intended to draw attention to the event happening on screen and allowing the audience to absorb the emotions that the events evoke. Accompanying the mother as she finds the shirt, other changes in the background music continue for the entire short, effectively creating the opportunity for the audience to feel just a fraction of the emotions that the characters experience throughout the whole animation. If Anything Happens I Love You uses these elements to tell a story of grief while also bringing a tragic yet ongoing issue to light. School shootings in America provide a deep insight into the harrowing truth of the animation, just as the animation is wielded as a tool to call upon the audience to make a much-needed change to help prevent gun violence in the future.

**Article published: November 7, 2025**

References

Glavin, Chris. 2018. “History of School Shootings in the United States.” K12 Academics (July 26, 2018). Available at: www.k12academics.com/school-shootings/history-school-shootings-united-states.

LaRose, Jennifer, Jose A. Torres, and Michael S. Barton. 2021. “Changing Media Framings of school shootings: A case study of the Parkland school shooting.” Journal of Mass Violence Research 1, no. 1 (August 11, 2021): 44–61.

McCall, Travis W. 2020. “Caring for Patients From a School Shooting: A Qualitative Case Series in Emergency Nursing.” Journal of Emergency Nursing 46, no. 5 (September): 712-721.

“School Shootings Over Time: Incidents, Injuries, and Deaths.” Education Week (January 22, 2025). Available at: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/school-shootings-over-time-incidents-injuries-and-deaths.

Biography

Kaylee Erwin is a student at the University of Texas at Dallas, Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology. Her passion is 3D Character Animation, but 2D Animation frequently captures her attention. Earlier versions of this text were developed with the help of Dr. Christine Veras and peers from the Animation Studies course.