Through the Carousel

Carnival Magic

A magician in a carnival--who actually can read minds and levitate people and objects--works with a superintelligent chimp named Alex, who can also talk. The magician and the chimp soon become the stars of the carnival, drawing in big crowds. However, the wild-animal trainer, who has been displaced by the team as the carnival's top act, decides to kidnap Alex and sell him to a medical laboratory for experimentation, thereby getting rid of his competition.

Pinocchio

When the gentle woodcarver Geppetto builds a marionette to be his substitute son, a benevolent fairy brings the toy to life. The puppet, named Pinocchio, is not yet a human boy. He must earn the right to be real by proving that he is brave, truthful, and unselfish.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

After a carnival troupe saves his life, a man agrees to help its immortal leader collect five souls and win a bet with the devil.

Big Fish

Throughout his life Edward Bloom has always been a man of big appetites, enormous passions and tall tales. In his later years, he remains a huge mystery to his son, William. Now, to get to know the real man, Will begins piecing together a true picture of his father from flashbacks of his amazing adventures.

Wings of Desire

Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds — with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk — that it might be possible for him to take human form.

Pinocchio: A True Story

Young Pinocchio runs away from his genius creator Jepetto. Accompanied by his horse Tibalt, he aims to see the world while joining the traveling circus ran by hustler Modjafocco.

Bogus

Recently orphaned, a young boy is taken in by his godmother who is shocked to realize that she can see the boy's imaginary friend: a flamboyant, French magician named Bogus.

Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man

A child is born. We see underwater swimmers representing this. He is young, in a jungle setting, with two fanciful "instincts" guiding him as swooping bird-like acrobats initially menace, then delight. As an adolescent, he enters a desert, where a man spins a large cube of metal tubing. He leaves his instinct-guides behind, and enters a garden where two statues dance in a pond. As he watches their sensual acrobatics of love, he becomes a man. He is offered wealth (represented by a golden hat) by a devil figure. In a richly decorated room, a scruffy troupe of a dozen acrobats and a little girl reawaken the old man's youthful nature and love.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

In a small American town, a diabolical circus arrives, granting wishes for the townsfolk, but twisted as only the esteemed Mr. Dark can make them. Can two young boys overcome the worst the devil himself can deal out?

The Valley of Gwangi

A turn of the century wild west show struggling to make a living in Mexico comes into the possession of a tiny prehistoric horse. This leads to an expedition to the Forbidden Valley where they discover living dinosaurs. They capture one and take it back to be put on display, leading to inevitable mayhem.

Incanto

On his deathbed, Ludovico entrusts his daughter Margot to the housekeeper, Felicia, asking that the family villa be transformed into an orphanage so that the little girl can grow up in joy with other children. But the wicked Felicia only wants the little girl's assets and not take care of her. With the complicity of her suitor, Max, she exploits the orphaned children and keeps Margot segregated and neglected to the point that the child withdraws into herself and no longer speaks. One night, however, Margot manages to escape and, after overcoming the darkness of the woods, she comes across a circus.

The Tales of Hoffmann

A melancholy poet reflects on three women he loved and lost in the past: a mechanical performing doll, a Venetian courtesan, and the consumptive daughter of a celebrated composer.

The Mighty Gorga

A circus owner and a lady trapper trek into the African jungle to capture a giant gorilla for his circus.

7 Faces of Dr. Lao

An old Chinese man rides into the town of Abalone, Arizona and changes it forever, as the citizens see themselves reflected in the mirror of Lao's mysterious circus of mythical beasts.

L'uomo proiettile

Hoffmanns Erzählungen

Live performance, Bayerische Staatsoper, 2011. The Tales of Hoffmann (French: LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN) is an opéra fantastique by Jacques Offenbach that combines three short stories by E.T.A. Hoffmann into a haunting whole: a melancholy poet reflects on three women he loved and lost in the past: a mechanical performing doll, a Venetian courtesan, and the consumptive daughter of a celebrated composer. One of the questions this opera poses for any director is how to link the 'tales' of Hoffmann's three lost loves together and knit them satisfactorily into the Prologue and Epilogue. In this production, Richard Jones solves the puzzle by turning it into an autobiographical journey which ends with a grand meet-up of all the characters Hoffmann has encountered: for once, Hoffmann is not presented as a rollicking kind of drunken story-spinner, but rather a sad-eyed, sobered-up depressive, who reaches for the bottle only because his disastrous love life has gone wrong yet again.

Fun and Fancy Free

Jiminy Cricket hosts two Disney animated shorts: Bongo about a circus bear escaping to the wild, and Mickey and the Beanstalk, a take on the famous fairy tale.

The Great Vairitosky

Vairitosky is an immortal artist. His act consists of dying in different ways, and then magically resurrected. The public is impatient, wants to see Vairitosky, who does not come into play. What will happen?

Broken Chord

When 17-year-old Abigail stumbles upon her old piano, painful memories of her late father resurface. But when a mysterious entity tries to stop her from playing, she must make a difficult choice: continue avoiding the pain - or confront it head-on.

Silent Sonata

A man stays alone with his children in a half demolished house in the middle of a desolate field. His wife has just been killed by a grenade in a military battle. He is expecting a new attack. Instead a wandering caravan called Circus Fantasticus stops by the house. They bring along the dying director of the circus. Is it possible for anything beautiful to happen in a landscape of war and death? Can life go on? Is it possible to realize that death does not exist?