Bats & Bugs

It seems appropriate that someone named Thomas Gassman is responsible for the impressive belches and other elements of sound design that contribute so much to Lena von Döhren's enjoyable short family animation. The belching is mainly done by baby grubs, whose parent is depicted as a buzzy scribble when in the air. They're just some of the inhabits of a lush 2D woodland, that is also home to moths with swinging proboscis and antenae as fluffy as rabbits' ears and glow worms who sometimes have a spot of bother getting their bums to light up. Von Döhren's animation is simple but vibrant and each character is distinctive.

All of which is sure to delight young audiences, and that's before you get to the family of bats who live nearby. But when a human light is switched on the insects find themselves drawn to it, just as the bats come out to feed. This, as you might expect from an animation aimed at little ones, is not a horror story, but one where a young bat, who is still working out how his wings work, decides he'd like some new friends.

The original title, Nachtschwärmer, translates as "night reveller" and is used as a term for a night owl, of the partying rather than animal sort, but the more prosaic Bats & Bugs is perhaps more on point for kids. The score from Martin Waesupe, which centres on a lullaby the adult fly and her grubs sing as they settle down to sleep is silly and catchy at the same time and helps to deliver additional humour to von Döhren's neatly timed work. Full of moments of fun, including the most radical hairstyles you've likely seen a fly sport, this is the sort of cast of characters that deserves its own TV series.

Von Döhren has made these kinds of family friendly shorts about nature a feature of her career and her latest is travelling the festivals, most recently showing in Dok Leipzig then buzzing on to Tallinn. You can watch her earlier short, The Pond, made with Eva Rust, and featuring a crowdpleasing farting fish on Youtube

Reviewed on: 29 Oct 2026