The Black Balloon: Monkey Ears

Thomas is 15 and his life is in chaos. Thomas wants to desperately to conceal his unusual family life

The first time we encounter the monkey ears is at the beginning of the movie. We see Charlie who is helping his mum to cook. he has a pillow up his shirt, trying to be like his mum who is pregnant and is also wearing the monkey hat. As the movie progresses we find out that this particular hat is what brings Thomas’ family together.

We then see jackie wearing the hat during swimming class. This is the part of the movie where we see Thomas and Jackie's relationship start to grow. She then gives Thomas back the hat so she can give it back to Charlie. We then cut to a scene where Thomas is trying to get Charlie to speak without using any signing. He starts trying to bribe Charlie with chocolate to say the word monkey. We see Thomas starting to accept Charlie more and more through the scenes involved with the money ears

The last scene where we see the monkey ears is when Charlie is performing at the the autistic centre’s musical, “Afloat!” Based on Noah’s Ark.

Charlie is playing a monkey along with his friend Russell. Russell then starts to have a breakdown whilst on stage and Charlie kicks him because of it, they both then go backstage with their parents and start arguing again and Charlie keeps spitting on Russell. Russell leaves and this results in Thomas then taking Russell’s place.