Melbourne International Animation Festival

Variety is the order of the day at the Melbourne International Animation Festival, which opens on Tuesday at ACMI. Boasting "more than 120 films from Australia and some 25 countries around the world", it provides yet another chance to see Adam Elliot's homegrown 2004 Oscar-winner Harvie Krumpet in the Australian Panorama collection.

There's also a chance to see The Tortoise and the Hare (2002), based on Aesop's famous fable, and made by the legendary special-effects animator Ray Harryhausen. The 83-year-old Harryhausen began making the 12-minute short in the 1950s, when he was working on films such as The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and It Came from Beneath the Sea, and only completed it a couple of years ago.

The highlight of the films I've previewed is a new work from the UK-based Aardman studios, best known for the memorable Wallace & Gromit shorts as well as the DreamWorks-support ed feature Chicken Run (2000). Directed by Michael Goleszowski, an Aardman stalwart who currently has his own version of The Tortoise and the Hare in production, Cats or Dogs? (2003) is an episode of the 2003 Creature Comforts TV series. And it's a total delight. Made using plasticine models and stop-motion photography rather than digital techniques, it's a delicious satire in which cats and dogs of many types and temperaments reflect knowledg