Disney it most certainly ain't. In this animated contribution to Funny Valentines the Modern Toss team has come up with a pocket-sized parable about one lonely house fly's quest for love. Having unsuccessfully attempted to commit suicide by, ahem, tossing himself onto a spider's web, he settles back and tells the story of what drove him to want to end it all.

Actually this isn't so far from Disney after all. As with movies such as the similarly-titled The Lady & The Tramp, the animals here are given human attributes. The spider sits back on its various legs to listen to the fly's tale of woe. How he fell for a woman dropping crumbs from her healthy snack and thought his dreams had come true when she laid the dinner table for two. Of course, it turns out that "she's got another bloke on the go". 

The animation is simple and cleanly drawn, the blokey voiceovers from Mackenzie Crook as the fly and Paul Kaye as the spider fit well with the characters and there are, of course, the obligatory twists in the tale, making this a distinctive little film that deserves to have a buzz about it. Let's face it, it's not often you hear a bluebottle chatting away while the music from Brief Encounter plays in the background.

Watch The Lady & The Fly here.