Animal Behaviour
2018 · 14m · Canada
Directed by Alison Snowden, David Fine
Genres: animation, comedy, satire
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, whimsical
Five animals attend group therapy led by a canine psychotherapist to discuss anxiety, relationships, and compulsive habits. Each species brings a distinct neurosis to the circle.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
It's a talking-animals-in-therapy bit that *should* be NPR-cute garbage, but Snowden and Fine actually commit to the absurdist psychoanalysis with enough bite that it stops being a premise and becomes something weirder—the satire eats itself and comes out darker.
A formally sophisticated piece of character animation that inherits from a lineage of anthropomorphic satire while executing a deceptively complex ensemble structure; the restraint in how each neurosis is revealed through gesture and speech rhythm shows real mastery of the form.
The decision to let each animal's compulsion unfold through their *specific* body language rather than exposition—the beaver's repetitive fidgeting, the moose's stilted formality—transforms what could be a sketch into something genuinely character-driven on a modest budget.