How Mermaids Breed

Forget Darryl Hannah in Splash, these mermaids are from the Henry Moore school of clunky matrons, surprisingly graceful with their lobster arms, tiny heads and long tails.

Their breeding cycle is not so different from the giant turtles', with one exception - the availability of a hapless sailor in a rowing boat.

A mermaid squirms up the shore to lay her eggs in the sand, while her sisters find a solitary and, as it turns out, naked fisherman on his way home.

They sink his boat, accompany him to an undersea sperm extraction unit, where the business is accomplished in enough time to return the half drowned donor back into his boat before his lungs flood.

Q.E.D: that is how mermaids have babies (no wonder they became extinct), artificial insemination, the capsized way.

The film is charming, cleverly lit and a fine example of claymation with fishy bits. Henry would have been proud.