The beginning? That of fairy tale: the animals of the forest live happily in their natural habitat, they call home. The wonderful animation, combining papier-mâché, silkscreen printing, felt pen colour lines, creates an atmosphere of simple cheerfulness, whereas the soundtrack mixes sound e ects and deceitfully childish melodies. Everything emphasizes the idyllic nature thereof. But one day, the animals return from a walk in the sun to find their house destroyed, the trees turned to stumps and the forest to a wasteland. The first solution will be low-tech recycling, as the best way out of this situation: they discover a landfill and amazed by the material heaping up there, use it to recreate a habitat. But the first gust of wing sweeps it back to the ground. It is only when the animals meet the humans, trying various stratagems to connect with them and communicate the importance of the forest, that a joint solution can take shape. In the adventures of this archetypal group of animals (a bear, a wolf, a bird sowing seeds like Tom Thumb did), the two animators deal with environmental destruction by reversing the iconography of tales: the forest turns from a worrying space to a hospitable one as opposed to the awkwardness of civilisation; the parable is no longer about the training of the young hero, but about surpassing the industrial obsession of mankind. (N.F.)
Cristóbal León
Cristobal Leon