A Christmas Dream (American Version 1946) * (aka Vánocní sen, 1945). One of my favorites. I hope you enjoy and appreciate the work that went into this. Especially with the limitations of the era. Directed and created by a team of two Czech Brothers, Borivoj Zeman and Karel Zeman. Both continued making films for over 30 years. Karel Zeman became the director of feature-length movies Including The Fabulous World of Jules Verne and Baron Munchausen. Borivoj Zeman directed titles such as The Phantom of Morrisville and The Young Lady from the Riverside This short film is also known as: Rêve de Noël ... France Vánoční sen ... Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic title) The Christmas Dream ... International (English title) A Christmas Dream ... USA (dubbed version) * A vintage Toy Story, so to speak. Vánoční sen was ahead of its time and still holds up today, over 60 years old, as an impressive achievement in film. Rankin Bass comes to mind when viewing, and I am sure it has inspired many Directors through the years. A little girl walks into the living room to see her Christmas tree lit with what we know as sparklers, and an abundance of beautiful new toys from Santa Claus. Her favorite toy before the new arrivals was a worn rag-doll which she promptly throws to the side to embrace her new toy friends. Off to bed with her new doll, teddy bear and other toys, the rag doll still lays were it was thrown on Christmas morning. Santa Claus magically appears when she is asleep to see the old doll mistreated, so he uses his magic to bring her dreams to life. He casts a spell for her Christmas Dream, she awakes to see her rag doll come to life and the old friend tries his best to win her back. He talks, climbs, spins, dances, ice skates and plays piano. All further impressing her to reconsider her neglect. Soon the teddy bear, giraffe, doll join in the fun of creating chaos with a table fan that apparently has turbo charged wind power. All works out in the end when she goes back to her old friend with a hug, and they sleep happily ever after. Thanks Santa! Stop motion (also known as stop-action or frame-by-frame) is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence. Clay figures are often used in stop motion for their ease of repositioning. Stop motion animation using clay is described as clay animation or clay-mation. Stop motion animation has a long history in film. Of the forms already mentioned, object animation is the oldest, then direct manipulation animation, followed (roughly) by sequential drawings on multiple pages, which quickly evolved into cel animation, with clay animation, pixilation, puppet animation, and time-lapse being developed concurrently next. The first instance of the stop motion technique can be credited to Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton for The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1898), in which a toy circus of acrobats and animals comes to life. In 1902, the film, Fun in a Bakery Shop used clay for a stop-motion lightning sculpting sequence. French trick film maestro Georges Méliès used it to produce moving title-card letters for one of his short films, but never exploited the process for any of his other films. The Haunted Hotel (1907) is another stop motion film by James Stuart Blackton, and was a resounding success when released. Segundo de Chomón (1871-1929), from Spain, released El Hotel eléctrico later that same year, and used similar techniques as the Blackton film. In 1908, A Sculptors Welsh Rarebit Nightmare was released, as was The Sculptors Nightmare, a film by Billy Bitzer. The first 3-D stop motion short was In Tune With Tomorrow(also known as Motor Rhythm) in 1939 by John Norling. The second stereoscopic stop motion release was The Adventures of Sam Space in 1955 by Paul Sprunck. The third and latest stop motion short in stereo 3-D was The Incredible Invasion of the 20,000 Giant Robots from Outer Space in 2000 by Elmer Kaan and Alexander Lentjes. This is also the first ever 3-D stereoscopic stop motion and CGI short in the history of film.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 18:00:00 +0000
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