OR
Title: The Snails
Original Title: Les Escargots
Country: France
Genre: Horror / Surrealism / Fantasy
Company: Sofac
Directed by: Rene Laloux
Year: 1966
MPAA Rating / TV Rating: N/A
The short starts off with an old farmer who is trying to make his vegetables grow, but they will not grow. Finally, the old farmer got so distressed about the whole thing that he started crying and it was then that the vegetables started to grow due to his tears. The old farmer then continued growing his vegetables by using his tears to water the vegetables and the vegetables eventually grew to massive sizes. Unfortunately, the next morning, the old farmer wakes up to find a bunch of giant snails, that were the size of houses, crawling around in his garden. It turns out that the snails ended up eating the farmer's vegetables during the night and the vegetables caused the snails to grow to an enormous size.
It was then that the giant snails ended up going to the city, causing destruction and mayhem in their wake!
Wow! I was quite amazed and a bit creeped out by this strange little short! After watching "Fantastic Planet," which was by the same creator and actually came out several years after this short, I was thinking to myself about whether or not I would actually see another animated film that was just as weird as "Fantastic Planet." Well, "The Snails" was definitely just as weird as "Fantastic Planet," although in a different way. "Fantastic Planet" took place on another planet, while "The Snails" takes place on Earth and yet, things get weird midway through the short once the snails appear. I loved the way that the short went in a completely different direction midway through as the short started off lighthearted with the farmer trying to grow his garden, to a bit odd as he used his own tears to make the garden grow and then to pure terror when the snails started growing in size and started terrorizing the people in the city. The animation was quite unique as the characters move in a very jerky way and always have exaggerated expressions on their faces that just adds on to the weirdness of this short. The animation also reminded me a bit of Terry Gilliam's animations in the animated segments of the "Monty Python's Flying Circus" TV series.
The only problem that I had with this short is that there were times where the short sort of dragged on and the pacing was a bit slow at some places that I was hoping that we actually got to the main point of the story much faster. Also, for anyone who does not like nudity, there is one brief scene of a topless woman that might be a bit problematic for some people. Also, I was a bit confused by some of the scenes, although the whole point of this short is to be as weird as possible.
Overall, "The Snails" is truly a treat to watch if you are a huge fan of "Fantastic Planet" and if you wanted to watch an animated short that is similar in tone and style to "Fantastic Planet!"
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