Touche

Charmingly rendered in smudgy animation reminiscent of early Seventies children's cartoons, Touche is a simple story of cat meets dog, cat discovers that dog is trapped inside a car, cat takes advantage of situation, cat gets comeuppance. It has some interesting other ideas going on. Is the cat just showing off because he has an audience, or does the presence of onlookers make him feel forced to respond to an insult he might otherwise ignore? To what extent should he be expected to put up with being growled at through a window anyway? With this in mind, his eventual humiliation seems rather unfair, but on the other hand he is very rude to the dog and he also demonstrates cowardice when the owner of the car returns to open the door.

Small children will probably enjoy this simple tale - especially the cat's gleefully provocative behaviour - but they may find the fuzziness of the visuals problematic. Ultimately the film is too insubstantial - even as a short - to have a strong appeal to adults.

It's a quirky calling card but it's difficult to say how well this style would work if applied to a longer project. Where director Trevor Hardy does succeed is in providing both his lead characters with strong personalities which come across well at a simple level. For this reason, Touche is fun, but not much more.