"ANIMAL BEHAVIOR" 2018
Dir. Alison Snowden and David Fine
" 'You need to stop gazing at your own navels and just get on with your lives,' an ape says to a text-savvy praying mantis, a boy-crazy leech, a dog with a psychology degree, a bird with a traumatic past and a pig, among other animals. “Animal Behaviour” takes the absurdities of modern human behavior and manifests them in their logical extremes, as character traits of various animals that gather together for a group therapy session. Lorraine the leech has attachment issues, Victor the ape can’t manage his anger, and Jeffrey the bird has nightmares of pushing his little brother out of the nest to his death. The animal stand-ins for human behavior certainly aren’t subtle, but are delightful nonetheless.
Snowden and Fine utilize a muted, familiar animation style, one that evokes the Nickelodeon comics of yesteryear, which adds to the scenes a harsh realism that juxtaposes wonderfully with the antics unfolding on screen. Notably, the short relies heavily on an actual script to advance its concept and develop its characters; none of the other entries in this category come close to this level of hyperactive dialogue, and many have no dialogue at all. But of course, only 'Animal Behaviour' has a talking praying mantis. A group of Vancouver-based actors turns in fantastic voice performances — Ryan Beil as the mostly calm, canine psychotherapist is a standout.
The film climaxes in a literal dogfight, as a conventional shrink’s office becomes the animal kingdom writ small. This hilarious twist, though a bit heavy-handed, packs a startling punch. The audience remembers, perhaps with a jolt of discomfort, that they were in the animal kingdom all along."
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