Dandelion's Odyssey

If you happen to meet a cynic at Kaboom, who proclaims: “It’s all been done before”, please point them to Dandelion’s Odyssey: an epic interplanetary space adventure, with as its heroes... four dandelion seeds. Without people, without dialogue, but with remarkable sound design – like a kind of flora version of Flow (2024) – four dandelion seeds manage to escape the nuclear destruction of Earth and embark on a breathtaking journey through the cosmos, to boldly seek a new home planet.

‘Planètes’ is also the original title of this debut feature by Japanese animator Momoko Seto, who has been refining her exceptional technique with the shorts Planet A (2009), Planet Z (2011), Planet Σ (2014) and Planet ∞ (2018). Her CG seeds, each with their own personality, move through a universe of smooth live-action timelapses and extreme slow motion, handmade maquettes and macro footage from a seed’s perspective – making a frog look like a gigantic monster and an aggressive praying mantis like something straight out of Jurassic Park (1993).

This is drama, not comedy. No Silly Symphonies trees with faces using their branches as arms, as director Seto emphasised in interviews, but actually trying to empathise with a plant. Flora, usually only the décor, here becomes the main subject. Seto also draws on her own experience as a Japanese immigrant trying to put down roots in Paris, for her deeper message: a holistic vision of life, in which everything is connected to everything else. Won the Paul Grimault Award at Annecy and a Fipresci Award in Cannes.