The surreal visions of the Brothers Quay, identical-twin animators from Minnesota who have since made London their home, are an offbeat mix of clockwork mechanics, wire, thread, and 19th-century curios, all set to life in a series of beautiful but elusive set pieces. Directed in a highly stylized manner, with a shallow plane of focus that intentionally keeps certain objects blurred and a camera…
The six shorts on this presentation offer animation buffs a look at the work of the pioneer stop-motion artist Ladislas Starewicz (1882-1965), whose films have been difficult to find in the West. Born in Moscow to a family of Polish origin, Starewicz displayed early interests in photography and entomology. He began experimenting with animation in 1910, when the stag beetles he wanted to film fi…
Chicken Run ~ Chicken Run
Nick Park, who made his reputation with the delightful Wallace and Gromit shorts, won his first Oscar in 1990 with his clever clay animation impressions of zoo creatures. Inventive vignettes of delightfully designed animals are voiced by real-life elderly London apartment dwellers commenting upon their own confining apartments, and children reflecting upon zoo life. The dryly hilarious and some…
Flushed Away ~ Flushed Away
Frankenweenie (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo)