Country France

Piccolo Piccolo (2026)

Piccolo Piccolo by Marta Gennari (2026)

Piccolo Piccolo, Marta Gennari's animated short film, is a small and charming thing that knows exactly how small and charming it is, and gets by very happily on that. I caught it at the BFI London Film Festival, and while it is slight by any measure, its lovely look and gentle sense of humour won me round. Three stars.

The first thing that strikes you is the art style, which is genuinely distinctive. It is all paper and cut-out textures, that handmade, crafty aesthetic where you can almost feel the materials, and it gives the whole film a warm, tactile, storybook quality that sets it apart from the glossier animation around it. The animation itself is good, fluid and expressive within that deliberately simple style, and it is frequently funny in a quiet, observational way.

The story, such as it is, is the very definition of uncomplicated. A tiny mouse, wanting to escape its little worries, decides one day to climb a very high mountain. What I took from it, really, is that this is a mouse who simply wants to find a bit of peace to sit on her blanket, and goes to rather absurd and strenuous lengths to get it, which is both very funny and quietly relatable. There is no dialogue, and no great depth or twist to speak of, just a sweet little journey towards a moment of calm.

And that is really all it is, but it does not pretend otherwise, and there is something disarming about that. It is endearing in its modesty, content to be a small, pretty, gently amusing few minutes rather than straining for meaning it does not need. Three stars. Piccolo Piccolo is a beautifully styled, good-natured little short that will not change your life, but it is a genuine pleasure to spend its brief running time with, and sometimes a mouse just wanting to sit on her blanket in peace is quite enough.

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Piccolo Piccolo (2026)

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Max Vanderspuy on Fishbrain, body horror and turning his award-winning short into a feature

Gamera 2: Advent of Legion (1996)

Cavalcade (1933)

Depeche Mode: M (2025)

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