Slug Invasion

Morning breaks on a sleepy suburb but the quiet is soon to be disturbed by an army of slugs with only one thing on their mind – to find and eat the flowers in the garden.  Yet they have an enemy, the little old lady who tends the lawns and shrubs each day.  Total war is about to break out – one of savage attrition and in which there can only be one winner, but who will it be?

This is a great animated short by a group of students at The Animation Workshop in Denmark.  The Animation Workshop is an international centre of knowledge and development for animation (and related) professions and businesses.

The Banana Slug – Nature’s Giant Recycler

Slugs and snails and puppy dog’s tails? Well, just slugs in this case – and one species in particular. This is the Banana Slug, featured today on the Ark in Space. It is the second largest slug in the world and found on the western seaboard of North America. It gets its name for obvious reasons (even though the ones in this picture are not nearly as yellow as they can get).

You may think that slugs in general are no good garden invaders, born only to wreak havoc on your carefully cultivated plants. Yet the banana slug is a detritivore and is interested only in dead foliage. In fact it contributes to its ecosystem massively. Read more about this fascinating slug over at the Ark in Space.

READ THE ARTICLE
Image Credit Jurveston

Wiggle Room

One would hardly expect the kitchen to be a place where epic adventures occur when we are not watching but that is exactly what happens in Wiggle Room by Joey Shanks.  In this stop motion escapade a slug makes its way in to the kitchen, drawn by the bright lights and the tempting smells.  Yet there is a singular menace awaiting our hero – and it is something which slugs the world over fear: salt!

Whereas most stop-motion movies are shot at 12 frames per second many of the action sequences in Wiggle Room were shot at up to 60 frames per second. This is why you may think that a lot of the short is extremely super smooth for this particular medium.  It’s no surprise to learn that Wiggle Room was one of only 56 films to be screened for Academy Award consideration in 2012.

The Giant Slugs of Angers

Angers is a beautiful and historic city 300km south west of Paris. Its universities and museums help to offer its citizens a rich cultural life which spans many centuries but remains vibrantly contemporary. Yet even the cultivated Angevins may not have been prepared for an invasion of giant slugs, the latest work by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman.

Hofman is renowned for his giant installations – we featured his big yellow rabbit in the Swedish town of Örebro last year. For Angers' recent Hanging Hearts Festival, Hofman created a pair of giant, dazzlingly multi-colored slugs.