Everyday, the main character, who is confined in a dark room, sees sunlight coming through the window: he flees from the closed place to an infinite one.
The land in poor Hassan's Central Asian homeland is stony and lacks water. Every day, he gazes longingly at the well in the garden of the rich merchant Machmud, which is full to the brim. One day, Hassan's parrot sits on the edge of the well and is attacked by Machmud's guard dog. To save his only friend, Hassan has to kill the dog. The cadi then sentences him to take the place of the guard dog, chained up. When a horse is stolen, he also has to do its work. The slave girl Fatima is his only ray of hope. But even she cannot persuade him to flee, as his place seems predestined by Allah. Only an overheard deal between the merchant and the cadi makes Hassan realize that the world order is dictated by the rich.
An old man living in an oriental city tells the story of his life to a group of kids: He too was once a young boy by the name of Little Muck - much like them, but with better manners and a heap of problems. Having lost his father at early age, little Muck is expelled from home by his greedy relatives. He wanders off into the desert hoping to find the merchant who sells good fortune. Amidst the dunes of sand he comes across a small house owned by a wicked woman and her many cats. She wants to make Little Muck her servant, but he manages to escape by stealing a pair of magic shoes which enable him to run faster than any man in the country. From there he heads right into the next set of challenges...
Princess Aurinia goes with her maid Lisa to the castle of King Ewald, his son Ivo, to whom she is promised as a wife. On the way, Lisa forces the princess into a role reversal, her secret plan is that she herself wants to be queen.
This is a classing Jordan animation, primarily in B/W, with touches of color. Actually, the engraved art work was film on color negative, so that subtle variations in tone are recorded. The mood--enhanced by John Davis' original music--is dream-like. It is both lyric and crackling, producing a kind of anticipatory tension. The scenes, in the usual Jordan manner, follow the surreal principle of placing objects and people where the ought not to be, and making movements that in the waking world are impossible. Each scene is a kind of drama from another world.
A man meets a girl, sitting on a bench in the park. He imagines ways that he can impress her. But will he make the good impression when he gets the chance?
The first animated short film to feature Varga's clumsy claymation character Augusta.
A man "experiences" current events as he reads about them in the newspaper.
After saving an abused pit bull, a troubled Brighton Beach teenager who makes ends meet through crime while raising his little brother, must protect the dog from its nefarious owners.
Hans Röckle is a puppeteer, inventor, blacksmith and more. He is challenged by the Devil (in almost a dozen fancy costumes) who offers him even more inventiveness, against his soul should he ever make money with an invention, build something twice, or cease inventing for 7*7 hours.
A fairy-tale about a beautiful but very haughty princess Anna who cruelly mocks each of her suitors. Finally she is forced by the king to marry a beggar. The poor life, hard work and love teach the princess a lesson and turn her into a loving and kind person.
East German adaptation of Grimm‘s fairy tale "Rumpelstiltskin". A boastful miller pretends that his daughter Marie can spin straw into gold, and so she is locked into a room full of straw and ordered to spin it into gold by the next morning. A little man appears and offers his help in exchange for Marie's necklace. The greedy treasurer makes Marie spin twice more until the only thing she has left to give the little man is the promise of her first-born child…
In an enchanted forest, the princely brothers Michael and Andreas get lost and are transformed, by a mountain spirit who jealously guards his underground treasure, into animals until the unlikely event of sincere love from a human. The only persons who may be able to give such love are the local commoner sisters Snow-white and Rose-red, who are kind and helpful by nature and stand to harvest unimagined rewards.
A farmer receives land from the king and discovers a buried golden mortar. He decides to give it to the king out of gratitude, but his clever daughter warns him that the king will surely want him to bring a corresponding pestle as well. When the king throws the farmer into jail for fraud, he bemoans the fact that he did not listen to his daughter.
Hated by her jealous and bloodthirsty stepmother, Snow White flees a murder attempt and seeks shelter in the woods with seven kindly dwarfs. Feeling she is safe from harm, Snow White welcomes the disguised queen into her home...with fatal consequences.
Astonished to find the Beast has a deep-seated hatred for the Christmas season, Belle endeavors to change his mind on the matter.
What lengths will a robot undergo to do his job? BURN·E is a dedicated hard working robot who finds himself locked out of his ship. BURN·E quickly learns that completing a simple task can often be a very difficult endeavor.
A young woman lives with her sleeping husband. Prisoner of her loneliness, she refuses to accept that this man is only a memory.
Waiting to board the train, an old lady just wants to eat her cookies in peace, but hijinks ensue when a teenager on the platform next to her seems intent on sharing them, too.
The first short made by Robert Morgan, made using a VHS camera and some rough puppetry.