This combined film (black and white drawings of human hands and objects) is a parable on power and the motives affecting modern society.
Trnka brings to life a surrealist circus of tightrope-walking fish, musical monkeys, balancing bears, and high-flying acrobatics in this whimsical feat of cutout animation made in collaboration with leading Czech painters of the era.
Violeta loves best fishing into the darkest depths.
A tramp tries to earn money by playing the violin, but he’s soon facing off against the jealous competition.
The only film to be both conceived and directed by Miroslav Štěpánek, using folk art from old market shooting galleries as the basis for a totalitarian parable.
Anita and Marion realize that an abandoned baby they sneaked into an orphanage was kidnapped from a millionaire. For the reward, they proceed to break into the institution at night, dressed as men to beat curfew, to get the kid out again. This film survives only in very fragmentary form.
Based around three of E.T.A. Hoffmann's tales ("Klein Zaches," "The Golden Pot" and "The Sandman"), with the main character being Hoffmann himself, this stop-motion fantasia focuses on the duality between the imaginative universe of his writings and his real-life profession as a government clerk.
A "fairy" who owns a toy store gives toys to good children who can pay for them on New Year's. The little boy Francesco really wants a train called "The Blue Arrow" but has no money, so the toys decide to step in. Based on "La freccia azzurra" by Italian writer Gianni Rodari.
An animation film about a clarinet and a trumpet that meet, clash, compete, compromise and harmonize.
A cupcake escapes a city of sweets and is marooned on an island with vegetables where he learns to reform his destructive ways in this tasty stop-motion from the talented Kirsten Lepore.
Story of a two woman who goes to the hammam for the first time.
A tribe survives in the middle of the desert on the meager pickings of a barren landscape. Soo'goh, the weakest member of the clan, seeks to overcome all obstacles and to reach the green pastures of the paradise that they all yearn for.
This winter is extraordinary; Moomintroll decides to stay awake to explore the winter instead of hibernating as usually. And winters are certainly totally different than he had imagined. Strangest creatures wander amidst the snowdrifts; midwinter darkness surrounds the Moominvalley, and on top of that, an eccentric guest is soon to appear. This guest requires many measures, and is called Christmas, Hemulen tells to a surprised Moomintroll.
In this silent film, now considered lost, Doug Caswell falls for Irene, his wealthy father's mistress. It's up to Doug's stepmother Helen to put things right.
Pioneer of silhouette animation, Lotte Reiniger, uses this technique in a retelling of the Greek legend in which the sculptor, Pygmalion, brings a statue to life.
500 years into the future, the earth is a dry wasteland destroyed by humans. Doctor Alma, a fluffy, brilliant Vulkeet (a cross between a parakeet and vulture) who drives a Vespa, must cure the only creatures left who can save the world by bringing back the rain - the bizarre and loveable Homeys who have fallen ill with a mysterious sickness.
So This is Love? was another early Frank Capra production for fledgling Columbia Pictures. The hero, dress designer Jerry McGuire (William Collier Jr.), is tired of being considered a wimp. After business hours, Jerry secretly takes boxing lessons, enabling him to knock the stuffings out of his burly rival Spike Mullins (Johnnie Walker). Jerry's newfound pugilistic skills wins him the affections of store clerk Hilda Jensen (Shirley Mason), who's just car-razy about "cave men." Filmed in a fast three weeks, So This is Love? was completed before Frank Capra's Matinee Idol but released afterward. Leading lady Shirley Mason was the sister of Viola Dana, who starred in Capra's initial Columbia effort, That Certain Thing.
An artist is painting a sunrise at sea. After a few finishing touches he stands back and admires the painting. The sun immediately commences to rise. From all appearances it becomes very warm as the sun rises, and the artist is seen to throw open the window and fan himself furiously. The climax is reached when the artist rushes from the room and returns with a large tub of water and a pair of tongs. Seizing the sun as it soars in the air he plunges it into the tub, causing a great cloud of steam to rise.
An unapologetic warning about how complacent we can be.
Roger plays the leading role in an stop motion animation series. He suffers an accident on set that leaves him out of the series. All is lost for him, until something unexpected will change his fate.