Wound Up

It is an ordinary morning for a retired colonel and his troop of clockwork gnomes. After inspecting the squad in a routine drill exercise, the Colonel puts his gnomes to work. Each gnome has its own duty to perform in maintaining the garden, of which, raking, mowing, trimming and weeding are a few. The Colonel keeps a watchful eye on his regiment as they work as well as his unconventional neighbour, who is painting sunflowers next door. The barbed wire fence between them should keep the neighbours at bay.

The neighbour’s grandson is playing football and overzealously kicks his ball over the wire fence, flattening the Colonel’s prized tulips in the process. Many of the gnomes stop their work and look on in shock horror. One distracted gnome drenches his colleague with a hose, causing him to malfunction. The Colonel is furious and, in a rage, spikes the football with a garden fork. A kindly gnome retrieves the flattened ball and returns it to the boy.

Later in the day, a gnome is flitted with a new fertilizer spray can and begins carefully spraying the plants, as the Colonel peers through binoculars from his high window. Still affected by the drenching he received earlier, the gnome malfunctions and sends cascades of fertilizer in all directions. His comrades intervene and tackle him, but not in time to save the garden, which quickly sprouts enormous mutant plants. These invade the entire garden, forcing out the gnomes and trapping the Colonel in his own house. The garden is transformed by the thick spiky plants, which have multiplied and dominate the entire plot.

The remaining gnomes retreat to the neighbour’s house and plan a daring rescue.