Les escargots (1966) User Reviews

Takes You Back To '50s Sci-Fi Films

[ccthemovieman-1 · 6/10 · 7 August 2007]

This was an odd cartoon, for several reasons. It was in the middle of this DVD collection I bought of 1930s cartoons and this was made in 1965. It also is French. It also is more of a science-fiction story out of the 1950s, or even a horror story, much more than a comedy which one normally associations with cartoons. An "animated short" is a better description of this strange story.

That story is about a farmer who is trying to grow lettuce. He has no luck until he discovers one day that his tears make the salad grow. He brings an onion with him and then hits himself our the head - whatever it takes to make him cry and produce these big heads of lettuce. The bad news is that snails invade these big vegetables and the snails turn out to be giants. They invade the nearby city and capture the humans, kids and adults. If this were a '50s film, you just know it would be called "Attack Of The Giant (or Killer) Snails!"

These escargots (snails) even demolish the city's buildings! What happens after that is even more bizarre, but funny.

I found the artwork strange, too: excellent in spots and primitive in others. Although I found it all interesting, I wasn't quite sure what to think as far as entertainment value. It's more of a curiosity piece. However, if the pace wasn't so slow, this could have been really good because the premise was good.

The Law of Unintended Consequences rears its interesting head

[llltdesq · 8/10 · 27 April 2014]

This is a very strange and unusual short. There will be spoilers ahead:

A farmer is trying to grow leafy green plants without any real success. He tries a good many methods, most rather odd, only to discover, when he bursts into tears, his tears make the crops grow.

Now he has to come up with ways to make himself cry. He does so, with spectacular results. One night, while he sleeps, small snails feed on his plants. By morning, they are Snails Of Unusual Size.

They become snails on a rampage until everything collapses and the snails remove themselves as a menace. Mankind rebuilds and things go back to "normal" (i.e., we fail to learn anything from what has transpired). The ending is hilarious and the best part of the short.

This short is included on a DVD release of the feature film Fantastic Planet, which is appropriate, because they share the same director. Both the short and the feature are well worth watching. Recommended.

Attack of the Killer Snails

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 16 October 2021]

An old man tries to grow crops on a strange planet. He has no success, even though he waters them. Frustrated, he begins to cry and his tears cause the plants to grow to enormous size. However, at night, snails begin to invade his crops and they grow to an enormous size and begin to attack the planet's inhabitants. Even though they are slow moving it seems they can't be outrun (remember the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes). It's s silly little plot with unique animation in a sort of Monty Python style.

Les escargots is quite an amusingly weird French animated short

[tavm · 7/10 · 30 December 2009]

Just watched this weird French cartoon on a DVD set that contained a lot of public domain animated shorts, mostly from the '30s through the '60s. This one was a bit different from the others in that, the drawing style was quite artistic and pacing was just measured by the various tones in content. In this one, a farmer has trouble raising his crops until his cries do the job. But that just leads to a bigger problem when something else grows...Like I said, quite weird and how you like it will depend on whether you tolerate this sort of thing. I found it pretty amusing though it took a while before I got into it. Nothing else to say except Les escargots is at least worth a look.

Silly, slight but fun

[Red-Barracuda · 6/10 · 31 March 2013]

A struggling farmer discovers that his tears make his lettuces grow massive. Sadly this also applies to the snails who feed on the crop. They soon set off and terrorise a city causing widespread destruction.

It's a very basic and silly story-line. It's really only there to allow for some memorable images. It's an early bit of work from Fantastic Planet creator René Laloux. Like others from the director it's has one foot firmly in the surrealist camp. It also reminded me quite a bit of the kind of animation that Terry Gilliam would go on to be famous for in Monty Python. It seems to be influenced partially by sci-fi schlock movies where over-sized creatures run rampant terrorising the local population. But more than anything this is a comedy. It's even occasionally quite funny with scenes of the farmer devising way to ensure he keeps on crying, he wanders his fields reading Hamlet and later with a device that hammers him repeatedly on the head. It's overall too short and slight to make too much of an impression but it's a fun film nevertheless.

Snails! Ack!

[No Nukes · 17 December 2002]

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I love this short! It's a spoof of kaiju eiga with giant SNAILS! No, really! They wreck cars, destroy buildings, and even chase people! Honestly, you'd think a person could outrun a snail, even one the size of a Sherman tank! It's hilarious!!!

Light-hearted fable with a unique visual style

[fishermensmell · 7/10 · 13 December 2020]

Sad that many reviewers seem to interpret any level of visual creativity as the result of drugs, or that the viewer should need to enhance their viewing experience with drugs. This one doesn't even really require any interpretation, it's a pretty straightforward fable, almost a children's story of a sad farmer whose tears result in over-sized vegetables that attract even more over-sized snails! The snails go on an entertaining rampage through the nearby city (which seems to be populated with prostitutes and artist's models - oo la la!) Just when you think the threat is over - well, there goes that farmer crying his tears again!

This is fun, absurdist humour in the style of Terry Gilliam (it also reflects his animation style of using stop-frame animation of cut-outs). Visually, everything looks great: scratchy, jerky, with washed-out colours that presage the look of this duo's next film, La planete sauvage.

Recommended if you want to enjoy some simple storytelling with a unique visual aspect that delivers a few laughs.

Run! They're shell-backed slugs!

[Quinoa1984 · 10/10 · 13 May 2008]

From the guys that did Fantastic Planet, one of the trippiest and most imaginative films ever conceived, is a short story of a man who needs help on his farm and puts some snails to work on the crops. In the morning, they're giant snails prowling the neighborhoods and frolicking with half-naked women. There isn't so much of a plot as much as it's just this situation told with a lot of wild enthusiasm and a kidding sense of science fiction fare from the 1950s. If you've seen the previous work of the director Lelaux (which sadly isn't very much, along with collaborator Toper), you know sort of what to expect, like a happy, wacky dream of delight and terror and fun.

It's simply a wondrous effort, with the snails moving in a mannwer that isn't exactly fluid but not static, with lots of color but ragged like some underground comic book, and it's a riot when taking it in like somes surreal experience out of a Lynch kid's book or a lost tale from the Maxx. I loved the style, the approach, everything about it basically. And if you're wondering if giant snails can make a big impact, then you haven't seen the rabbits! Highly recommended

Very strange.

[invisibleunicornninja · 7/10 · 15 September 2018]

This is an animation that is hard to describe. Its not bad, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it. Its not very long, so I would recommend finding it on YouTube and giving it a watch. Its certainly an experience.

Revealed earlier short film by the creator of "Fantastic Planet"

[Polaris_DiB · 8/10 · 29 October 2007]

This short film is included with the recent DVD rerelease of Fantastic Planet, and I have to say I like it a bit better than the feature. Laloux's earlier short is a lot less politically oriented, a lot less sensical, but because of those aspects a lot more surreal and psychedelically wonderful.

A farmer can't get his crops to grow until he discovers that they absolutely flourish under his tears. Utilizing a series of devices to ensure he can cry all over the field, he raises the plants to gigantic proportions. But just like Jack and the Beanstalk, gigantic proportions of food also equate gigantic proportions of pests, and snails eat their way through the crops until they go on a King Kong-like rampage of a nearby city, seducing pretty girls and destroying entire buildings at the same time. Once recovered from the attack, the farmer goes back and tries growing carrots this time. Which means rabbits.

The same style of animation is used here as in the later Fantastic Planet. Warm colors and colored pencil shadings create a form of cut-out animation (think South Park, but a little better at hiding the process) and character design. The focus of the feature is the snails, of course, and that's a brilliant way to keep it cheap because, well, they're snails... they don't exactly have many different ways of portraying them.

--PolarisDiB

Oddity

[Tweetienator · 7/10 · 23 September 2021]

A strange short piece - I watched this because I like René Laloux's Fantastic Planet a lot. If you like strange and odd things and got the chance put this 10 minute running piece on your screen, you won't regret it, or at least won't lose much time.

An offbeat and enjoyable animated short

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 18 July 2016]

A frustrated gardener tries various methods to make his crops grow to no avail until he finds out that crying on said plants will beget the results he wants. Complications ensue after a bunch of snails that eat the plants grow to gigantic size and subsequently menace a nearby town. Done in a funky (if limited) animation style, with a jaunty score by Alain Gorauger, a wealth of striking bizarre images, amusing touches of inspired oddball humor (the scenes with the huge snails on the rampage are hilarious!), and a simply priceless closing shot, this whimsical meditation on the concept of causation and its occasionally unpredictable consequences possesses a certain lovably quirky charm that's impossible to either resist or dislike.

quirky sci-fi fun!

[framptonhollis · 7/10 · 31 July 2017]

This is a simplistic and slightly silly work of surrealist animation that clocks in at barely ten minutes, but is till far more entertaining and watchable than most science fiction film being produced today (and probably most sci-fi films of the past as well). It is mostly a comedy, at first focusing on a farmer who desperately grows his crops to enormous sizes. Then, through unexpected twists and turns, things get pretty wild and before you know it a giant snail is trying to watch a women undress! This is probably one of the quirkiest science fiction films I've ever seen, and is surprisingly upbeat and lighthearted in overall tone (even if it does contain a fair share of violence an probable death; however all of this is playful and cartoonish in nature so...) considering the same director-animator duo made not only "Fantastic Planet", but also a short animated classic named "Dead Times", which is one of the most depressing f*cking short films I've ever seen. It's good to see that these two can be a little less heavy handed and sad every now and then.

Banal

[andriy-tanatar · 4/10 · 30 October 2004]

I was surprised to learn that this short took a big bunch B (thanks to my bootstrap course for that one) awards at various short film festivals. I find it unfair, since there is nothing special about that film - I've seen a lot of better shorts that got nothing (but were produced later).

Plot summary: giant snails threaten humankind. Morale (I guess): don't use pesticides (rabbit invasion is only steps ahead). Well, whatever the author meant, it's unclear to me.

To be frank, I din't like this short at all. It combines easily predictable plot with not-so-good artwork and poor animation. Maybe, I've seen too much of these. Try going for Eastern European shorts, they have a lot that are much better. 4/10.

loved it

[nik_jok · 10/10 · 22 March 2020]

Honestly this is super funny. the animation is cute and the story is satisfying. definitely understand why it git so many awards and stuff. love it.

Funny, minimalist animation

[pennypenser · 8/10 · 30 December 2022]

Having seen Fantastic planet as part of a course on animation, which was a weirdly enjoyable film, I found this little gem on MUBI, well it found me.

The story is simple as is the style of animation - 2D cutout, made prominent by Terry Gilliam during the Monty Python days.

This is a fantastical tale, in which a simple premise - a struggling farmer uses his own tears to make his crop of lettuce grow, but they grew too well and attract snails, which eat the lettuce and also grow to enormous size. The giant snails then start terrorising the humans, all very funny.

While somewhat sexist by today's cult standards, with the depiction of woman and how the giant snails target them, there are social commentaries in play here that are not overtly thrust upon the viewer.

Well worth a look.

Mildly funny but also strange and very poorly animated.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 30 April 2014]

René Laloux is responsible for this very strange film. I know nothing about the man, but after seeing a couple of his animated films I question whether he was into drugs--very, very psychedelic drugs!

The story begins with a farmer being frustrated by his dying crops. No matter what he tries, the plants keep dying. In frustration, he begins to cry and these tears make the plants grow rapidly. Then, inexplicably, moments later, GIGANTIC snails appear and start eating everyone and everything. Soon, they attack the city and things look horrible--until the snails die off as quickly as they appeared. Then, comes a punchline that ALMOST makes it worth watching the short.

Aside from a crazy sensibility to the film that you just need to see, the cartoon is notable for its horrible animation quality. Standards were very low for animation at the time--but even by late 1960s standards, "The Snails" is a very ugly and difficult to like animated film. How it won any awards is a puzzler--but at least the ending is kind of funny.

This movie scared the absolute living shot out of me as a kid

[kinadismith · 1/10 · 26 March 2021]

When I was younger I remember seeing this film and being absolutely horrified and scared out of my mind for years I wondered did it even exist and after 5 years of searching I found it this movie still scares the absolute living shot out of me. The animation along with the music and sounds is very unnerving for me.

Giant snail invasion

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 29 July 2016]

"Les escargots" or "The Snails" is a 10.5-minute animated movie from 1966, so it has its 50th anniversary this year already. It is probably the most known short film by the late French animation filmmaker René Laloux. The message is: You are what you eat, because giant cabbage heads also result in giant snails and not just a few of them. they are invading an entire city and this is actually the material out of which a trashy live action horror could have been made. but in this animated version, it is all not really that scary, at least for us the audience. The citizens in the film were certainly very scared. Unfortunately, I must also say that I was not really that well entertained watching this one. This may have to do partially with the animation style as well that I did not like that much. One final note: There is no dialogue in here, no language whatsoever, so you won't need subtitles if you want to check it out. But why would you? I don't recommend seeing it.

Laloux force you to think

[Zigurat_81 · 4/10 · 11 October 2016]

Every film of René Laloux force you to think and to make and effort to imagine more than Laloux visually offers. Nowadays seems it isn't an easy and pleasant activity. Unfortunately, we don't have time to the extremely slow and methodical pace of his way of filming.

His old-fashioned animation delightfully remembers the cartoons of my childhood. But in this case the plot is weaker than other Laloux shorts and films.

I strongly recommend the masterpiece "Comment Wang-Fo fut sauvé". Based on a novel embodied in the 1936 book "Nouvelles orientales" written by Marguerite Yourcenar.