
The coming-of-age narrative continues to be a favourite among young directors, with its relatable themes and nostalgic appeal making it a resonating watch for audiences of all ages. Brimming with emotion and often tackling profound questions, these stories of adolescent exploration have a timeless quality and a transportive power that consistently keeps viewers engaged. They also tend to shine during awards season – a reality director Loïc Espuche knows well. His Cesar Awards nominated film Yuck! (Beurk!) – the story of a young boy who pretends to be disgusted by kissing but secretly longs to try it with his campsite neighbour – is one of five contenders for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, alongside Beautiful Men, In the Shadow of the Cypress, Magic Candies and Wander to Wonder. Now deep in promotion mode, we caught up with Espuche for a chat about the film’s origins, the power of collaboration, and what this Oscar nomination means to him.
[The following interview is also available to watch at the end of this article.]
Yuck! isn’t yet available to view online. So, for those people who haven’t seen it yet, can you introduce the plot to them?
It’s the story of little Leo, a seven-year-old boy, who, like all of his friends in the campsite, screams “Yuck” each time he sees a kiss. It’s easy to see when two people are about to kiss because their lips start to shine pink with sprinkles. Leo is so disgusted by that, but he has a secret – when he looks at Lucy, the little girl in the next tent, his own lips start to shine in pink. So, it’s a story about the beginning of feelings, a first kiss, and the fear of other people’s gaze.
What inspired you to explore childhood disgust toward romance as a central theme?
In fact, it was during the screening of my previous short, which is the story of a soldier who goes off to war. At the beginning of the movie, he says goodbye to his fiancée by giving her a little kiss. This movie was screened in a theater full of kids, and at the moment of the goodbye and the little kiss, all the kids started to say, “Oh, yuck, it’s so disgusting. I cannot watch it!” When I saw this reaction, it was so funny for me, and I started to think, wow, I absolutely have to make a movie about a kiss and the reaction it provokes in children. That brought me back to my own childhood.
As a dad of two young boys, I can definitely confirm that any romantic moment in a film is met with kind of disgust and horror, especially watching it with their parents. For me, that’s one of the things I really love about Yuck! – it feels so universal. Whether you’re young or old, you can relate to and connect with it. Was this broad appeal something you were thinking about and wanting to embrace when you were creating the film?
Yeah, totally. For me, it’s a movie about childhood, but not just for children. It’s also for grownups because I think the themes – like the fear of other people’s gaze, and the way to find your own secret gardens – are something we have all experienced as kids but maybe we still continue to experience that as adults. Also, I wanted to make a movie that I, as an adult, would be happy to watch. I really like the idea that cinema is something we share together in a theater, and I like when we can share it between generations. So, all that was in my mind since the script, trying to develop something interesting for children but also for adults.
I really like the idea that cinema is something we share together in a theater, and I like when we can share it between generations.
What was surprising for me is that I thought it would be a movie mostly seen in France, but in fact, it has been screened a lot in other countries, and I’m super happy that people from other countries can see this movie.
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I wanted to focus in on the lip glistening. For me, that adds a real magic quality to the film. What was the thought behind that effect and why did you want to add that to the story?
I got the idea from the screening to speak about the kiss and the reaction it can provoke in children, but I needed a concept to tell this story. I was inspired by the child I was — really shy, really observant, and afraid of other people’s gaze. Having the lips that tell everyone you want to give a kiss because your mouth starts to shine – it’s written on your face – was a concept really connected to trying to hide your feelings. It’s also something visual, so we don’t have to use words to say, “I love you, I want to kiss you.”

Another point is that I wanted to create a kind of contrast between the image and the sound. With the pink lips, the image says the desire to give a kiss, but the sound, with the dialogue of the children saying, “Yuck, it’s disgusting,” says the disgust. For me, there was something really cinematographic in this contrast between image and sound.
There are a few elements in the film where it feels kind of timeless, it could be set 20, 30 years ago, but it could also be set now. Was that something you were thinking about when you were developing the film?
I think this was not conscious but more organic because it’s also inspired by my memories of campsites when I went on summer vacation with my family. Visually, at that time, campsites in France had a lot of tents and not many bungalows. Today, we have more bungalows, but I wanted to reproduce the idea of campsites that I had in my childhood. There are some elements that are nostalgic for me like the blue table of Lucy’s mother is something everyone had when I was a child. But at the same time, there are elements from today, like the shirts of the football guys with Messi, Ronaldo, and Mbappé, which are more contemporary. I wanted to create a sensation of a summer vibe, but I didn’t want to make a movie that was set in a specific year. For me, it was more about the sensation than something really realistic.
Let’s talk about the aesthetic and how it looks. The film was presented in 2D animation. What was your thinking behind choosing this particular aesthetic for the film? Did you ever think about doing it in any other animation style?
For me, 2D and drawing allow me to simplify a lot and remove details. I wanted to be focused on the lips when they shine and so 2D allowed me to make a really simple graphism with solid colors that contrast with the lips and the shiny effect. Also, 2D allows me to change the shape a little bit in the animation to have something really organic in the way they move. Globally, even for the background, the fact that I can simplify the universe a lot in 2D helps the audience focus on what is really important. At the same time, it makes their own imagination work. It’s not just what you see; it’s what you think you have seen. This way, it was easier to create a universe that the audience could be put into.
I wanted to be focused on the lips when they shine and so 2D allowed me to make a really simple graphism with solid colors that contrast with the lips and the shiny effect.
Also, there are two other reasons why I chose 2D. First, I’ve been drawing since I was young, so for this short, if we were out of budget for any reason, I could finish it by myself, but in 3D, it would have been impossible. We were late for the animation, so we transferred the money for the backgrounds to the animation to let the animation team finish, and I did all the backgrounds myself, which would have been impossible in 3D. The last reason is that it’s really important for me to work with a team, and a lot of my friends are 2D animators, so I wanted to work with them.

The sound really helps set the scene and immerse you in the story. When the film starts, the first thing you get is the sounds, and you instantly start to think of summer, heat, and being on holiday. How did you work with your sound team to achieve the final sound for the short?
First, the sound started with the voices. We decided to record real kids to bring something about the real life of children to it. We recorded them with a boom in a big space so they were free to move and really play. After that, I edited all the voices for one month, and it’s on this voice edit that I did all the animatics. So, the movie is really driven by the sound.
There was also a lot of work done by Grégoire Chauvot and Maxime Roy at the sound editing and mixing stage. What was particular for this movie is that there are many realistic sounds, like the insects from the South of France and the environment of the campsite, but there is also the sound of the pink lips, which doesn’t exist in real life because we don’t have lips that start to shine. It was super tricky to find the right balance for this sound. Finally, we ended up with three layers of sound: one was the sound of skin, another was the sound of sparkling water bubbles, and the last one was the sound of a rain stick that adds something more musical and meant that we could control the apparition of the lips with these sounds.
The music adds to the magical, coming of age narrative in the film. How did you decide on the particular score for Yuck!?
First, all the graphism is in numerical 2D, so I also wanted computer music – numerical, electronic music. The music had to give the sensation of a summer vibe and love but from a child’s point of view. That was the trickiest part because, with electro music, it’s easy to go to a love song that’s too intense, too adult or too adolescent. We needed to have something a little bit naive because first love is a little bit like that. This balance was really important for me.
The music had to give the sensation of a summer vibe and love, but from a child’s point of view.
At three months before the end of production, we still hadn’t found who would make the music. That’s when we came across Aliénor Doublet’s SoundCloud. She’s the composer of the song. What’s really fun is that she graduated from the same animation school as me, but eight years after me, so we didn’t know each other. She did the music on film, and her style was already what I was looking for during the production. So we called her – the movie was almost entirely colorized – and she directly understood the project and translated the pink sensation of the image to the sound, keeping this naive and romantic style. She had the “la la la,” and it was perfect.

Yuck! is obviously in the running for an Oscar, what does this recognition mean for you as a filmmaker?
I think it means two things, really different. On one end, it means that the people who made the movies I’ve watched since I was a kid will see my movie. That’s just wow! it’s so amazing. It gives a lot of exposure to the movie and it’s super crazy. On the other end, there’s something really more intimate in that you can tell your parents, and you see that they are so proud. This is something super big and something super intimate, and it brings this true sensation. It’s really moving.
Final question for you today, what can you tell us about any future projects you have in the works?
In fact, during the end of Yuck!’s production, I was developing a TV show for a young audience. I learned two days ago that France Television has almost validated the developments, so they are about to sign all that to go to production. It will take some time, but it’s on its way. I also have two other ideas, one for probably a TV show for young adults and the other idea is something more intimate about family. I can’t tell you too much because it’s really the beginning, but I had the feeling that it might be interesting to have that in a live-action feature film. But I need to take time to develop these two new ideas, and it’s a bit difficult right now with the Oscars.