Tiddler (2024)

What the eponymous young fish lacks in size it makes up for with an enormous imagination. Constantly late for school, his excuses to teacher "Miss Skate" become more creatively outlandish by the day. There's pirate treasure, a shark attack, a giant squid - even some fisherman's nets! Thing is, though, all his schoolfriends think he's just "Pinnochio" with fins. Astonishingly, one of these tall stories is actually true and leaves him a way from home, lost, and needing the most unconventional trail of literal breadcrumbs if he is to find his way back to his school and best friend "Johnny Dory". The style of animation reminded me quite a bit of the "Gruffalo" - indeed I'm sure I saw a scaly version of that very beastie at some point here. The story is a characterful one along the lines of boy who cried wolf, it's engagingly told and uses different styles to help us distinguish between his real life and his fantasies. It's a tale with a moral, sure, but that's delivered quite charmingly and it shows that you don't need Disney budgets to tell an enjoyable to watch story of underwater adventures that teaches us about all kinds of fish, too!