When a little blue book comes to life and finds himself without a section to claim, he is eager to find where he truly belongs for fear he will be discarded. The animated short film “Blooky: The Book Who Wanted to Be Read” captures the struggle of finding the right place and purpose in the world, whether you’re a book or a human.

Blooky’s journey offers a new perspective on the struggle to “find your niche,” according to director, writer and animator Pablo Díaz de León Hicks, who completed his Master of Fine Arts in animation at the School of Cinematic Arts in Spring 2025. Originally created for his thesis project, the film will begin screening at festivals in 2026.

Hicks said he faced a similar dilemma as Blooky when deciding to pursue a career in animation at all.

“I always knew I wanted to do this, but because of some ideas or preconceived notions that [I had] of the film industry and things like that, I had a bit of hesitation,” Hicks said.

Through the short film, Blooky seeks “his rightful place among the shelves” in sections such as politics and horror, struggling to find where he fits in. Hicks said this story was important to him because it underscores how important paving one’s own path in life is.

“Ultimately, you have to do what makes you happy and what is hopefully going to be something that not only makes you happy, but hopefully helps other people,” Hicks said. “I wanted to really emphasize those two things: something that feels right for you but that, hopefully, it’s a net positive to the world in a way.”

The magical elements of a book coming to life and exploring a library full of other inanimate objects may not inherently be realistic, but Blooky’s struggle is not abstract by any means.

“This is something that can relate to both children and adults that watch this project,” said Shagun Kanwar, a producer on the film who completed her Master of Fine Arts in producing at SCA in Spring 2025. “I think media plays such a strong role in reflecting and shaping our current realities. And especially since this is a short that is largely going to be geared towards children, I think it’s important to promote a deeper sense of curiosity and adventure in the world today.”

Before “Blooky” became Hicks’ thesis project, he had originally written a simpler story about a book that couldn’t read for a screenwriting class. Eventually, after marinating on the topic, he picked it back up and planned the film over a year.

Despite having to storyboard roughly 17 versions of the story, then animating over the course of three to four months, Hicks said the biggest challenge was developing the story itself.

“When I started the story, I thought, ‘Okay, it’s gonna be a fun concept of a little book [that] has a self-discovery journey through a library,’” Hicks said. “I’ve tried to make more complex stories before, but for some reason [Blooky] was just harder than I thought … It’s a lot of fun, but it’s crazy how even just the simplest of stories, there’s a way in which the pieces have to fall into place.”

In addition to portraying the artists’ story of self-discovery, the parallels between Blooky and the journey of immigrants in their new homeland stood out to Nathania Djuhar, one of the film’s producers and a graduate student completing her Master of Fine Arts in the Peter Stark Producing Program at SCA, who, alongside Hicks and various crew members, is not from the United States.

“It’s the idea of belonging and finding your place in this new world that you’re thrown into,” Djuhar said. “It’s a very universal, relatable thing to come here and figure out where your place is and not really know where you’re supposed to belong.”

Hicks said he hopes that “Blooky” will illustrate that “it’s not about where you fit in, but rather, just being sure that wherever you are, you’re making a good difference.” After being rejected from several sections, Blooky finds his purpose when a young boy searching for comfort turns to his pages.

Although its original intention was not about immigration, Hicks said the story developed into its new meaning from the diverse perspectives that contributed to the film.

“It is very interesting how it evolved without me even realizing that I’m creating a story that is very much commenting on a lot of stuff that I’m feeling,” he said. “Blooky is pretty much an immigrant. Wherever he goes, he’s just going to basically a new country, which, in the purposes of the story, a new country is a new section.”

Kanwar said these unique perspectives are necessary when creating accurate and diverse representation in such a vast industry.

“Within children’s animation, when you look at it broadly, diversity has been increasing, but there has been also a larger constriction when it comes to the number of animation companies, with so many shutting down in the past few years due to various challenges,” said Kanwar. “So it’s even more important for us as filmmakers to keep the good fight on and ensure that there is proper representation.”

Throughout production, collaboration meant not only supporting the crew and meeting deadlines but also pursuing opportunities that aligned with the film’s message. Hicks, who is from Mexico, had not considered creating a Spanish version of “Blooky” until a push from Kanwar and Djuhar.

“When they said that, I was like, ‘Oh my God, let’s do it,’” he said. “That speaks really well to how good of creators they are. Like they thought, ‘You know what, let’s do it in Spanish’ … It just didn’t cross my mind, and they made it possible.”

“Blooky” has only been screened to a few audiences and is set to enter the festival circuit in 2026. However, the filmmakers said they hope to release it for the public so more people can watch the film and find themselves in Blooky’s journey.