Les escargots

Sad that many reviewers seem to interpret any level of visual creativity as the result of drugs, or that the viewer should need to enhance their viewing experience with drugs. This one doesn't even really require any interpretation, it's a pretty straightforward fable, almost a children's story of a sad farmer whose tears result in over-sized vegetables that attract even more over-sized snails! The snails go on an entertaining rampage through the nearby city (which seems to be populated with prostitutes and artist's models - oo la la!) Just when you think the threat is over - well, there goes that farmer crying his tears again!

This is fun, absurdist humour in the style of Terry Gilliam (it also reflects his animation style of using stop-frame animation of cut-outs). Visually, everything looks great: scratchy, jerky, with washed-out colours that presage the look of this duo's next film, La planete sauvage.

Recommended if you want to enjoy some simple storytelling with a unique visual aspect that delivers a few laughs.

An old man tries to grow crops on a strange planet. He has no success, even though he waters them. Frustrated, he begins to cry and his tears cause the plants to grow to enormous size. However, at night, snails begin to invade his crops and they grow to an enormous size and begin to attack the planet's inhabitants. Even though they are slow moving it seems they can't be outrun (remember the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes). It's s silly little plot with unique animation in a sort of Monty Python style.

This is a simplistic and slightly silly work of surrealist animation that clocks in at barely ten minutes, but is till far more entertaining and watchable than most science fiction film being produced today (and probably most sci-fi films of the past as well). It is mostly a comedy, at first focusing on a farmer who desperately grows his crops to enormous sizes. Then, through unexpected twists and turns, things get pretty wild and before you know it a giant snail is trying to watch a women undress! This is probably one of the quirkiest science fiction films I've ever seen, and is surprisingly upbeat and lighthearted in overall tone (even if it does contain a fair share of violence an probable death; however all of this is playful and cartoonish in nature so...) considering the same director-animator duo made not only "Fantastic Planet", but also a short animated classic named "Dead Times", which is one of the most depressing f*cking short films I've ever seen. It's good to see that these two can be a little less heavy handed and sad every now and then.

A struggling farmer discovers that his tears make his lettuces grow massive. Sadly this also applies to the snails who feed on the crop. They soon set off and terrorise a city causing widespread destruction.

It's a very basic and silly story-line. It's really only there to allow for some memorable images. It's an early bit of work from Fantastic Planet creator René Laloux. Like others from the director it's has one foot firmly in the surrealist camp. It also reminded me quite a bit of the kind of animation that Terry Gilliam would go on to be famous for in Monty Python. It seems to be influenced partially by sci-fi schlock movies where over-sized creatures run rampant terrorising the local population. But more than anything this is a comedy. It's even occasionally quite funny with scenes of the farmer devising way to ensure he keeps on crying, he wanders his fields reading Hamlet and later with a device that hammers him repeatedly on the head. It's overall too short and slight to make too much of an impression but it's a fun film nevertheless.

A strange short piece - I watched this because I like René Laloux's Fantastic Planet a lot. If you like strange and odd things and got the chance put this 10 minute running piece on your screen, you won't regret it, or at least won't lose much time.