Las tardes de Tintico
2012 · 11m · México
Directed by Alejandro García
Genres: animation, fantasy, musical
Tones: absurdist, theatrical, whimsical
Under the Quebrada de Acapulco, a group of music-addicted mosquitoes desperately tries to bring joy back to an old, famous rumba master, with grand musical numbers and much flavour.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A rumba master saved by mosquitoes obsessed with music—it's the kind of premise that makes you laugh at how perfectly it doesn't care about audience expectations, and García leans into that absurdity without winking. Most scouts would see "whimsical animation" and move on; Felix sees a film that's genuinely weird and earned every second of its strangeness.
García situates this within a rich lineage of Latin American musical theater and animated fable, using the formal architecture of the musical number to explore melancholy and revival with theatrical precision. The film knows exactly what tradition it's conversing with—and how to refresh it.
The entire film pivots on a single formal choice: treating mosquitoes as a chorus with genuine emotional agency rather than pests or comic relief, and that one decision transforms the whole premise from cute concept into something that actually moves. That's the craft decision that makes an 11-minute film about insects feel essential.