- Nelson, isolated himself after his wife's death, clinging onto her locket until one night it's lost. Tessa, a bubbly girl finds it and dedicates herself to reuniting the locket with its owner, by attaching a lost poster onto a red balloon.
- Where Balloons Go is a family adventure where we follow an elderly man, Nelson, and a young girl, Tessa.
Nelson and 70-year old recluse would spend his days watching TV, going to the pub and reliving the beautiful memories of the times he had with his dearly departed wife Laura. To Nelson, Laura was the light in the dark, the warmth in the cold, the sunshine to the rain, and once she was gone he lost the joy and beauty life brings.
We open with a happy memory of Nelson and Laura living their daily lives, Laura cooking, Nelson playing music, all is well. As the memory fades reality is introduced, with Nelson struggling to do the simplest of tasks, like cooking, cleaning, and general hygiene. A locket of Nelson and Laura at the wedding day is the proud possession that cannot leave his sight. The locket is what keeps his memories alive. With another restless, sleepless night Nelson decides to go to the pub, stumbling home after having a few too many, Nelson fumbles and ends up dropping Necklace. The next morning we see him searching his whole house only to confirm his fear that it is gone. We cut to the introduction of the second protagonist Tessa.
Tessa, 11, is a bubbly, curious and adventurous girl. She lives with her mother, Ashley, after the father walked out when she was four. Ashley, having adopted the role of a single mother has made sure that she can always provide for Tessa, which occasionally overpowers the loving, nurturing roles a mother-daughter relationship needs. Ashley has become very overprotective of Tessa, which gave Tessa a rebellious side always wanting to push the boundaries and explore the world that is beyond her front door
Tessa on a walk home from school finds the locket and brings it home to show her mum. She becomes fascinated with the locket and the photos inside, as she longs for the idea of a classic family, herself. Tessa decides to reunite the locket with his owner by making a missing poster and attaching it to a red balloon which she carried through her village the next day.
Ashley wakes up that day to find Tessa has already left the house and begins to panic, meanwhile we see Tessa exploring the streets trying to find the owner of the locket. Tessa in a world of her own is stopped by a policeman and fearing she will be taken home to Ashley she to runs away. As she slips away from the policeman she sees a dog and decides to attach the balloon to his collar so lose the policeman once and for all. Tessa still believing the policeman is chasing her stumbles across an old man sitting on a park bench alone; they begin to have a chat. The audience recognises the old man as Nelson, however with the locket tucked into her school jumper, the characters have no idea of their connection to each other. Tessa realises how long she has been out without her mum knowing where she is and decides to head home. Once home Ashley and Tessa have a heart to heart in which Ashley tells Tessa about a surprise she has for her tomorrow. The next day Ashely takes Tessa to the hilltop with a red balloon with Tessa's 'missing locket' poster and she lets her release it into the sky. Just as Tessa is doing so the screen becomes filled with a red tint as we see the sky filled with balloons coming from the village as people have seen her message and are all passing it on.
We see Nelson trying to work his new laptop as his house gets covered with a red tint and he goes outside to see the balloons filling the sky. Nearby he sees the same stray dog Tessa encountered the day before, a red balloon with a message attached to his collar. Nelson carefully goes over to the dog and takes the balloon seeing the message of his necklace and breaks down with joy.
We next observe Nelson outside a house trying to pluck up the courage to knock on the door, just as he goes to turn away its opened, by none other than Tessa. She goes to give Nelson his locket back to which he smiles and says it looks a lot better on her but if he could have the photo. It ends with Nelson making new friends and the courage to socialise, whilst Tessa and Ashley reignite their bond.
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