Stunning art design is only one of the assets of A Mouse's Tale, a universal fable that dates back to Aesop. © La Poudrière School.

A Mouse's Tale (La Queue de la Souris)
A Mouse's Tale may be the most straightforward tale in this year's roster of Cartoon d'Or nominees. A cat (although in this case, it's a lion) captures a mouse, and the mouse promises the cat a grand reward in exchange for its life. It's a universal concept, one that dates back to Aesop, and as a result, it's a very versatile and adaptable tale.

Rather than simply letting the mouse run free to do his bidding, the lion ensnares the mouse with a thread, then sends the mouse out into the world to bring him a meal worthy of his stature. The mouse presents the lion with increasingly larger and more elaborate dining options, although nothing seems to satisfy the lion's arbitrary and capricious whims. (In rapid succession, the lion refuses a cherry, a frog, a large bird, a hedgehog, a rabbit, an owl, a squirrel and a snake, each captured at increasing risk to the mouse's own personal safety.)

After the lion refuses his last attempt at gift-giving, the exasperated mouse unleashes a tirade that, not surprisingly, infuriates his captor. The lion prepares to devour the mouse, but, unbeknownst to him, the mouse has laid a trap and has hopelessly entangled the lion in the very string that he used to imprison the mouse. The mouse then bites through the string, picks up the discarded cherry, and heads home, leaving the lion alone to ponder his next business deal with small, woodland creatures.

The film is visually stunning, with expressive silhouettes against simple, bold backgrounds. The menacing black lion confronting a tiny white mouse against a blood-red backdrop is one of several enduring images from this four-minute short, whose art direction is the simplest, yet most powerful, of the five nominees. The film was created as director Benjamin Renner's graduate project at La Poudrière, animation film-directing school, and I'm sure I speak for everyone who's seen this film when I express a strong interest in whatever post-grad project he helms next.

Andrew Farago is the gallery manager and curator of San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum and the creator of the weekly online comic serial The Chronicles of William Bazillion.