My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Cinema Epoch)
Real stop-motion animation, all hand-made with no computer assistance, is quickly becoming a lost art, especially a feature length film such as this. Christiane Cegavske's dark tale starts in an idyllic forest, with a family of "crow creatures", small animals with bird beaks, who are asked by aristocratic white mice to create a doll based on a portrait they carry. They succeed, but like it so much they won't give it up, and hang it, Christ-like, in a place of honor on their oak tree. The mice steal it in the middle of the night, so some of the forest creatures go on a trek to get it back. They enlist the help of a magical frog, who apparently has the power to bring the dead back to life, not to mention his psychedelic treats. There is a spider with a human head that likes to barter. The mice play card games, overlooked by a menacing crow with a skull head. The symbolism is purposely vague, each viewer will have their own interpretation, but on my first viewing I sensed a theme of religious devotion and a struggle between the classes for possession, and control, of that religion. The next viewing, who knows? Very much in the style of Jan Svankmajer's Alice, one of my favorite movies of all-time.
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