The Hedgehog in the Fog, Tale of Tales, and The Pied Piper of Hamelin (Krysar)

Okie dokie then, so here are my analyses of these three films, I guess I'll go ahead and talk about them in the order we watched them.

The Hedgehog in the Fog

This film was cute and whimsical, easy to follow and entertaining to watch. I agree with some of the past posters in that its audience was most likely children due to its overall simplicity, yet this did nothing to dampen my enjoyment of it. And yes I actually did quite enjoy this film, particularly its animation style. It took on a rather simple style, much like its story, using soft tones and lighting achieved through the use of the fog to express itself.

This fading of objects and characters (One things I thought was neat was the fact that, rather than having to create multiple figures of decreasing sizes to create the illusion of depth and distance, the film would just make them lighter or darker, achieving the same results in the fog.

I assume this is probably done in most cutout films such as this one,) in the fog left the film with an illusion of depth, (notably well done when the hedgehog is looking up at the tree.)

 

On a final note, from a design standpoint, the characters in this film were cute and approachable, exactly what you would expect for a children's story, and even those who were supposed to be frightening, such as the owl are only scary situationally and not visually.

Tale of Tales

Another interesting film, that felt more like a visual experience than an actual story. The animated short followed a variety of characters bouncing between them so as to connect them under an overlying theme. The film was supposedly supposed to treated as a series of memories, and as memories are not set in stone or orderly, the film on shows glimpses of them and the connections between them may only be evident to their owner. The scenes seem connected through a variety of overarching themes, a few being war, (WWII),

most evident in the sequences involving the soldiers and the dancers, youth, the recurring child and lullabies throughout, and the apple,

seen eaten by the boy and crows, as well as following the wolf. This film relies upon the seasons to show the passage of time, although each memory appears to be bound to a certain season, the exception to this being the wolf who is seen in all four. This brings about the idea that the wolf is an outsider, merely an observer of the memories much like us. Seeing as the grey wolf is a figure in Russian folklore, it raises the question of whether he is more of a driving force in the film or simply its protagonist.

Don't roll your towels or they'll turn into children....

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

I've got to say I really didn't care much for this film. From a story standpoint it ran much too long, and from a visual standpoint it was overall rather dull and uninviting. The film's plot was simple enough, we've all heard the tale of the pied piper before: a wealthy town is plagued by rats, and when a piper appears, playing the role of exterminator, he is refused payment and in anger gets revenge on the town. (the story I grew up hearing was that he stole the children and held them hostage, but in this one he turns the entire village into rats and drowns them in the river. Nevertheless you still get the same point across.)

What I didn't understand about this film was why it had to run so long to tell its story. It felt like there were multiple shots and scenes that told the same thing, (mainly evident with the multiple characters hiding their gold) and many characters that could have been completely removed for the same effect.

My other problem with this film, as I mentioned, is from a visual standpoint: though the film's animation was fine, its colour pallet bothered me as there was little to no contrast with anything in the film. This would have been fine if the message of the story was that though the village was wealthy in money they were poor in life, or something of the sort, but in that case I feel as if the pied piper and the uninvolved fisherman should have been of a different, more vibrant pallet. This however is a more minor detail and not of too great importance in the grand scheme of things so I'll leave it at that.

The last thing I'd like to mention is on the topic of character designs. I enjoyed the similarity between the council members and the rats, particularly the fact that, though these similarities existed, they weren't forced and therefore parties still looked normal on their own. another thing I loved was the transformations of the townsfolk into rats. It was fairly amusing and I am glad that they didn't make the transformations instantaneous (both for comprehensions sake and for visual effect).

Actually I lied I have one more thing to add about this one: I have mixed feelings about them using the live rats in this film. I know that saying this wont make a lick of difference and that rats are great swimmers so those in the water weren't in any danger but I still felt the need to put it out there. Also where did they get all the dead rats anyways? Okay, and with that, I'm done. Bye!