Two Balloons

Two Balloons opens with the rustic warmth of a Wes Anderson animation palette: mason jars of food stacked symmetrically, a tea-stain-coloured map resting on a wooden desk and a fashionably old coffee pot steaming away on the stove. Suddenly a lemur slinks into this peaceful scene, takes a swig of coffee and charts his journey to his lemur lover whose photo stares back at him.

We soon discover this is not just a room but the quarters of an airship as the camera glides into the sky with our first lemur spotting his partner’s vehicle just ahead. There is a magical modernism about the boat-attached-to-blimp creations, and yet an old world romance radiates between the two ships with a bird fluttering their love-drawings and origami roses to and fro.

Even when a raging storm dampens the idyllic tone and near deflates their chances of blimp reunion, the destruction somehow maintains an impressive gracefulness as the lemurs plant themselves afloat in the ocean. Thankfully, sea-water makes up 70% of the earth’s surface, otherwise it might have been a less than delicate crash mammal landing.

Two Balloons is showing at this year's Fantasia Film Festival. Its enchantingly intricate stop-motion animation and set design can be appreciated by anyone of any age, as can its universal tale of love and separation. If man versus nature has been explored one too many times, this film makes it clear that lemur versus nature is the future. The episode is without words or speech but, thanks in part to its distinctive musical score, is not without a lot of feeling.