Thumb Snatchers from the Moon Cocoon

During this time in America where there is a lot of debate about gun control comes this short film that BOTH sides of the argument can embrace. "Thumb Snatchers from the Moon Cocoon" seems to say BOTH arguments are perhaps best! The film begins with an insane Texas sheriff blowing up cows for kicks. However, the robots from the moon are NOT happy about all this violence and have come to snip off the thumbs of the humans. After all, without thumbs, they can't wield axes, hammers or handguns. But, not surprisingly, this sheriff ain't about to just give up his thumbs and he goes on a one-man killing-machine. As for what's next...just see this very strange claymation film.

I honestly think it's best NOT to try to interpret meaning behind this film--just sit back and watch the strangeness. It's very funny and very weird...and I can appreciate that. Well worth your time...especially if you are a sick freak...like me!

Sheriff Huckiss is borderline certifiable and his day is going to get more exciting because an alien race has landed on Earth and the aliens are here to steal the thumbs from humans

A Claymation science fiction comedy short and like every other Claymation animated short the cliché of " labour of love " is very fitting . It also merges good visuals with a very tongue in cheek style . I noticed Mr Plankton thinks there might be a subtext of gun control in there somewhere . I'm not entirely sure if it making any political comments such as that but I did find both interesting and amusing is the way it pokes fun of America in that the sheriff is an obvious parody of those characters you see in Westerns often played by the like of John Wayne and Tommy Lee Jones so much so I thought might have been a British produced short but it's not . I also thought the British influence extended to the aliens themselves being green blobs in metal suits with electronic voices which instantly reminded me of Daleks but it's not like DOCTOR WHO is unknown in the States and the idea of aliens in armoured shells goes back to HG Wells WAR OF THE WORLDS so any science fiction fan worth his salt will be aware of the concept . The makers of this are obviously of sci-fi and have a love of the genre along with a nice sense of humour so I really enjoyed this one

As Theo mentions (sigh, always in his shadow!) it is notable that the only American to make a comment here seems to have come away with the fact that this film is a comment on gun control (one way or the other), whereas the Scot and Norn Irishman got something different. To me this rough and tumble short is very much a spoof on the typical American sci- fi film where the outsiders are ultimately beaten back by American might, which comes in the form of jingoistic freedom and a large amount of hardware. I couldn't help but think of Independence Day and other similar films where the American military and the frontier spirit are the two main things to make the difference.

This animation takes that to extremes as it sees the good ol' boy sheriff doing his talking with his piece and his hands. By making it deliberately excessive and comical, the short film works because it actually is never a million miles from being similar to the content of a "proper" film – or at least in terms of the general theme and flow. The animation is very nicely done with great figures and movement throughout – it looks so good that to be honest it becomes normal and I watched this a second time just so I could ignore the content and focus on how well it moved and looked.

The short is a bit blunt perhaps but it is still quite amusing and I enjoyed its dig at the US self-image in movies and its own culture; it is affectionate but still funny.