Les escargots

This was an odd cartoon, for several reasons. It was in the middle of this DVD collection I bought of 1930s cartoons and this was made in 1965. It also is French. It also is more of a science-fiction story out of the 1950s, or even a horror story, much more than a comedy which one normally associations with cartoons. An "animated short" is a better description of this strange story.

That story is about a farmer who is trying to grow lettuce. He has no luck until he discovers one day that his tears make the salad grow. He brings an onion with him and then hits himself our the head - whatever it takes to make him cry and produce these big heads of lettuce. The bad news is that snails invade these big vegetables and the snails turn out to be giants. They invade the nearby city and capture the humans, kids and adults. If this were a '50s film, you just know it would be called "Attack Of The Giant (or Killer) Snails!"

These escargots (snails) even demolish the city's buildings! What happens after that is even more bizarre, but funny.

I found the artwork strange, too: excellent in spots and primitive in others. Although I found it all interesting, I wasn't quite sure what to think as far as entertainment value. It's more of a curiosity piece. However, if the pace wasn't so slow, this could have been really good because the premise was good.

Every film of René Laloux force you to think and to make and effort to imagine more than Laloux visually offers. Nowadays seems it isn't an easy and pleasant activity. Unfortunately, we don't have time to the extremely slow and methodical pace of his way of filming.

His old-fashioned animation delightfully remembers the cartoons of my childhood. But in this case the plot is weaker than other Laloux shorts and films.

I strongly recommend the masterpiece "Comment Wang-Fo fut sauvé". Based on a novel embodied in the 1936 book "Nouvelles orientales" written by Marguerite Yourcenar.

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.

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.

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.