Almost Humans

Old Czech Legends

A monumental piece of art bringing the heroes of the ancient Czech myths back to life. The picture consists of seven parts: Cech the Forefather, Bivoj, Libuse, Premysl, Girls War, Horymir, Lucka War.

The Good Soldier Svejk

Adapting Jaroslav Hasek's raucous satirical novel, and also bringing Josef Lada's equally famous illustrations to garrulous puppet life, posed Trnka one of his biggest creative challenges. Trnka himself felt that the final episode was the most artistically successful, but there's much to enjoy in all three, not least the way that the lackadaisical layabout Svejk's own self-serving anecdotes are realized through cut-out animation.

Hedgehog's Home

In a lush and lively forest lives a hedgehog. He is at once admired, respected and envied by the other animals. However, Hedgehog’s unwavering devotion to his home annoys and mystifies a quartet of insatiable beasts: a cunning fox, an angry wolf, a gluttonous bear and a muddy boar. Together, the haughty brutes march off towards Hedgehog’s home to see just what is so precious about this “castle, shiny and huge.” What they find amazes them and sparks a tense and prickly standoff.

Series 4

This experimental short documents the clash, sometimes obsessive, sometimes glorifying, between humans and their mechanized environment. Using photographs, the animator creates varying perspectives through optical manipulation and changing colour, achieving bold and provocative effects.

A Grand Day Out

Wallace and Gromit have run out of cheese, and this provides an excellent excuse for the duo to take their holiday to the moon, where, as everyone knows, there is ample cheese.

The Wrong Trousers

Wallace rents out Gromit's former bedroom to a penguin, who takes up an interest in the techno trousers created by Wallace. However, Gromit later learns that the penguin is a wanted criminal.

Toy Story That Time Forgot

During a post-Christmas play date, the gang find themselves in uncharted territory when the coolest set of action figures ever turn out to be dangerously delusional. It's all up to Trixie, the triceratops, if the gang hopes to return to Bonnie's room in this Toy Story That Time Forgot.

A Close Shave

Wallace's whirlwind romance with the proprietor of the local wool shop puts his head in a spin, and Gromit is framed for sheep-rustling in a fiendish criminal plot.

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Cheese-loving eccentric Wallace and his cunning canine pal Gromit run a business ridding the town of garden pests. Using only humane methods, which turns their home into a halfway house for evicted vermin, the pair stumble upon a mystery involving a voracious vegetarian monster that threatens to ruin the annual veggie-growing contest.

Freight

An alien being fights to complete an impossible task. A metaphor for the emotional weight one carries within, and the hardships when striving to rid oneself of it.

Prince Bayaya

Bayaya, a young peasant, protected by the spirit of his dead mother, arrives at the castle of the King, where he entertains his three daughters. He soon realizes that the three princesses are nagged by evil spirits. The little peasant manages to rid them of them, fights a duel with a wicked lord who wanted to marry one of the three princesses. He finally wins the heart of the youngest sister while saving the soul of his mother who was in purgatory.

Cars Toon Mater's Tall Tales

Mater the tow truck travels from country to country as he retells his infamous but unbelievable stories.

The Meeting

An alien decides to find out how much humans actually know about extra-terrestrials. The directorial debut of Mykhailo Titov, a master of chimerical animation of the 80s, is based on the story of the Ukrainian science fiction writer Volodymyr Zayets.

Howl from Beyond the Fog

Set during the Meiji reformation era in a small village in Kyushu, Japan. The story revolves around a young boy named Izana and a blind woman named Takiri, the two encounter the large monster Nebula who since ancient times was feared as the god of lake Amenosagiri. Theme of the film focuses on the Japanese concept of light and darkness, as told by puppetry and model miniaturization of the films’ world with practical special effects by Keizo Murase.

Brimstone Terrace

When a depressed public defender ends his own life, he is sentenced to an eternity in Hell. However, after Satan takes notice of his skills, he is offered an afterlife-changing deal that may not fall in line with his own values.

Flesh

Rare, medium rare, medium, medium well and well done. Through intimate and personal stories, five women share their experiences in relation to the body, from childhood to old age.

On Your Mark!

A Belated Premiere

A prominent Russian ballet dancer and teacher Alexander Shiryaev had another talent hidden for almost a century. Archive materials that date back to 1906 reveal his bold experiments at stop-motion and paper animation.