The author L'eopold CHAUVEAU has passed into obscurity in his home country France, however some of his books are still printed and there are some admirers in Japan. If this animation motivates more people to get CHAUVEAU's literature and his charm as an illustrator becomes better known, I would be grateful and it would give this award greater significance for me.

This work is an undeniable masterpiece. An old crocodile lying by the Nile has lived for hundreds of years and suffers from rheumatism which has made it difficult for him to move, and he is seen as a burden by his clan. One day, the crocodile suddenly conceives a trip to search for a place for him to live and swims down the Nile and enters into the Red Sea which is vast. What does the old crocodile see at the end of his eccentric journey? The director YAMAMURA Koji shaped the picture book of the same title which originated in France into an animation filled with cool and bitter humor. From the simple picture images and sound from which distracting presentations are all cleared, we feel YAMAMURA's extraordinary competence which attracts the most attention in the world. This is an animation which has personality.