Bad Seeds

If there's one instrument that should instantly put the word "duelling" into your mind, it must surely be the banjo - and the opening chord on this darkly humorous short animation from Claude Cloutier is a harbinger of what is to come. Told economically in just six minutes and without words, there is nonetheless a whole world here, as we travel along a hand-drawn hedgerow, given an air of the unexpected by a plant suddenly showing its teeth.

We arrive at a bud, a buzzing fly, the snap and catch of prey. But, hang on, is that a small top hat and a beak that the plant is sprouting? As this bird-like entity takes shape another bud suddenly climbs into view, it too, will soon be shapeshifting into a frog-like plant, the pair set for an endlessly imaginative bug battle.

If you're someone who equates the phrase hand-drawn with "simple", this could well change your mind. The intricately detailed ink-drawn artwork here has the quality of an 1800s Punch cartoon or something cooked up by Alice In Wonderland illustrator Sir John Tenniel about it and a hint of Terry Gilliam. Every arch of an eyebrow holds an emotion as the frog and bird square off - and Cloutier knows the importance of waiting just the right amounts of beats for a blow to land with a laugh. At first, it's simple Tom And Jerry slapstick but then it becomes a battle of creative wills as the plants shapeshift into different creatures from the animal kingdom in their one-upmanship and even further into the realm of human "bad seeds".

There are winners and losers in every duel, of course, and Cloutier's fable - one of 15 animations shortlisted in the Oscar race - hides a moral as sharp as a thorn.

It's currently available to watch on YouTube, here: