From Omeleto.
A snail tells a story.
LOVEBUGS is used with permission from Teddy Alvarez-Nissen. Learn more at https://teddysmovies.com.
A cultured, intellectual snail lives within the walls of a suburban home. Within these walls, he has a hidden library, where he settles in to share stories from his life as part of his forthcoming autobiography. He has had a rich, fascinating life, full of love, loss and transformation.
But as he contemplates his life, an imminent fumigation threatens to obliterate his entire community and destroy the beauty and delicacy of this hidden world, adding an unaccustomed layer of urgency to what has been a pleasingly quiet existence.
Directed and written by Teddy Alvarez-Nissen, this charmingly quirky animated short takes advantage of animation’s unique creative freedom and agility to tell a story from the unique perspective of a snail living in the walls of an ordinary house. But this is no ordinary snail: the hero of the narrative is intelligent, cultured and wise. Ensconced in its cozy library, it has lived a full, engaged life of love and sorrow, and having written his autobiography, he invites viewers to hear stories from it.
The snail’s narration is beautifully written and detailed, reflecting the character of a warmly high-minded, well-read intellectual who has reached a reflective age. As he tells us about his home, his love relationships and how he picked himself up from heartbreak, we’re immersed in the snail’s world, which is also a delight to watch. The stop-motion animation is reminiscent of Wes Anderson’s animated works, with their baroque attention to detail, precise coloration, stylized framing and literary quality, and it creates a whimsical, even magical world, where the ordinary turns into the enchanting.
The cozy world of the film opens up, though, when the snail recounts his human co-inhabitant, a frustrated writer who hates bugs. The snail has tenderness and empathy with his human, and even when the writer calls an exterminator to deal with the pests in the house, the snail isn’t angry. As the snail faces his helplessness in the face of extermination, he tries to reach out to the writer. But ultimately, he must come to terms with the fragility of existence and the inevitability of change.
Captivating, charming and wise, LOVEBUGS achieves a beautifully poignant end, where the snail calmly accepts his fate because he finally understands the beautiful, spiral-like nature of life. The snail’s contemplative nature now offers comfort and acceptance, helping it to understand how life’s transience and fragility endow it with meaning: how it makes the small moments precious and how even the most overlooked of relationships can prove deeper and more durable than they appear on the surface. More than anything, it leaves us with a deep affection and respect for all creatures great and small, existing side by side in a dance of life and mortality.
