Agnes

We’re in a corporate office. Agnes, a professional in her late 20s, is presenting what looks like a business report to three uptight, uncaring and arrogant businessmen sitting across the room. We see the frustration in Agnes’s body language. The scene mood is reflected in the sartorial choices: Agnes is wearing a faded pastel dress, and the three sexist executives are all wearing dark colourless suits.

Character AgnesActorAgnès StuartFavourite DishSushi

In a quick turn of events, George teleports from the shower to the office as he sings “This is The Shower Song! No words can go wrong!”

This transition also transitions the audience into the singer’s daydreams, a fantasy land and the hallmark of The Shower Song. When George mischievously triggers the alarm by holding up a lighter close to the fire alarm, the water sprinklers going off everywhere and much to Agnes’s delight, who puts on The Shower Song hat, the executives are soaking wet and running hysterically.

We’re outside giant doors where groups from all walks of life hilariously storm out in swimwear and dart towards us, led by Agnes herself. They’re all wearing The Shower Song blue hats (this is not depicted in the sketches). The crowds seem to clearly know where they’re heading to; we, the audience, just don’t know it yet.

For the film to come full circle, we’re back at the office where Agnes, initially dismissed by her rude colleagues, sprays them with a fire extinguisher.

A magical moment! The panel, once made of sexist executives, become one of beautifully-diverse ladies wearing bright colourful dresses. Even one of the earlier colleagues, executive “Teddy Bear”, is now in swimwear and much more relaxed and happy. Having participated in the movement and graduated from “The Shower Song School of thought”, he’s now welcome amongst us. They all give Agnes a cheerful standing ovation.

There is much to say about the allegory here: a professional environment is way more beautiful when it has diversity. The sartorial colour choices (from plain pastel and black to fluorescent colours) plays this contrast up.

The lyrics compliment the visuals with the verb “shake”. Agnes managed to shake things up by taking action.
The Shower Song is about liberation and open mindedness. Those who join, like the colleague who joined in wearing a swimsuit, became a better, more approachable and likeable person. Let’s rock the boat everywhere!

P.S. The drawings are pre-production sketches that were based on the director’s vision and inspiration. In function, they were a guiding force that helped carve the filmed scenes’ composition. At times, you might notice discrepancies between the sketch and the actual scene, and this happens for various reasons: some things look better a certain way in practice, limited resources limit the possibilities or even, the director has honed the idea, or decided to change the meaning entirely. For most of The Shower Song though, the scenes have come out spot-on identical to the vision.