In A Pig's Eye

Charmingly idiosyncratic in style, this short animation features art that resembles that of Japanese screens, filtered through the eyes of a child. Distortion abounds, of feature, of form, of reality. There is rhythm and ritual on this farm. If farm it is, for initially it seems to have but one animal, a slumbering sow. Yet this is no great problem, or rather, it is, for the prodigious pig is near the size of the house.

Atsushi Wada does almost everything - assisted by Luiz Kruszielski's music and Kyohei Takahashi's sound - each line, seeming drawn by hand, each crinkle of eye and lovingly coloured-in hair. It's hypnotic, captivating, a treat.

With brilliant character design, a circular logic that compels, and a sort of formal childishness. There is a beauty to it, a sort of quasi-legendary feel, a tickling, yawning surrealism. The old man failing to climb stairs, the slicing of ham, a lipstick, brothers dangling from a tree and floating in the snores of their porcine neighbour. To recall it is to try to catch a dream at wakefulness, there's an oneiric quality to it that haunts. Though improbably fantastic In A Pig's Eye is likely to delight you.