The Hog in the Fog and a Little Grey Dog(Wolf); Oh, and Krysar (The Pied Piper)

Hello again all, it is I, Dako, again with my post on the films from Tuesday. I'll be going in the order in which we watched the movies, and try using Conner's guidelines to write this post, so I guess more structure~~~

The Hedgehog in the Fog

I'll begin with The Hedgehog in the Fog. In this short tale about an adventuring hedgehog, I think Yuri Norstein's goal was simply to just, tell the story. Well, tell the story with the air of a children's story, as that is what it seemed to be. We can see this in the way he designed such characters as the hedgehog and his friend the bear cub.

Pretty child-friendly right?

But another thing that added to the atmosphere, was Norstein's use of fog and soft edges, which invoked, at least in me, child-like feelings of mystery, adventure, and a bit of fear. The fog also did very well in giving a sense of depth, his gradual receding images, utterly beautiful.

And so we ask, did he succeed? I believe so; I understood the story, although slower than some of the stories and films I see nowadays, but he successfully told the story, created wonderful images that aided in the telling, and had overall good timing throughout.

Tale of Tales

Another Yuri Norstein film, Tale of Tales told a very different story, one that was also not as clearly told as The Hedgehog in the Fog. Although for this film I think Norstein's goal was also to tell the story and having matching imagery, what I think was different was the perhaps the clearness in which the story was told, or perhaps that the lack of explanation for parts made the story more confusing for perhaps like a younger audience. It may also just be a cultural difference in story telling as well, which I am not used to. The base story was about the Grey Wolf, but there were other stories about war, and families, that I was not sure how they were quite related, and those untied stories were what made the overall running story of the film a little confusing. But in a way, some of the stories did tie together: like the story of the Wolf and the Bull with the family. I resolved that that was what was on the scrap of paper the the Wolf tried taking on the table, he stole the story. 

So, did the art style aid the telling of the story? Well, it worked well. Its purpose, stylistically, was not as strong as I could find in The Hedgehog in the Fog, but it did work fine. The child-like softness that happens to be in Norstein's work helps keep the child-like fable feel, but his more realistic images helped bring the story a more adult tone. So overall, it was successful, but with minor things I would change in the telling of the story.

Krysar (The Pied Piper) 

Much like Street of Crocodiles, I did enjoy Krysar for its puppetry, though I did have some problems with the pacing. The style was very interesting, twisty, edgy, and sharp in great contrast to the soft and fuzzy puppets from Norstein's films, but I did feel there were parts which I'll speak of later, that were just too slow. 

In this film, I believe Jiri Barta was trying to portray the aspects and undertones of the city, like the mazes or tunnels made by the rats that the people were being paralleled to. In order to achieve this feeling of underlying sniveling mayhem, Barta did several things well, mostly concerning his incredible puppets and set. First of all, he directly brought in the symbolism of the rats by using real dead rats, which in a way also ads a kind of "ew" shock factor when one sees dead bodies. This reaction we then start to associate with the people and especially the city officials as the story goes on. Additionally, the dark, muddy tones really helped match the story, although sometimes the twisted carvings of buildings confused me perspective-wise, it added to the chaotic appearance of the city. Barta also helped his connecting the rats to the people by designing them to appear somewhat rat-like as well as animating their body movements to be quick, making them scurry and kind of squeak, and even at a point eat with the rats. 

They scurried like rats

^^ Designed to look like a rat ^^      

So, in the way of depiction of the city and its council, Barta did very well. My only big problem with this film, like many others, was the timing. This film felt too slow, with many parts that, although necessary to the story, did not need to be as long as it was. It was more toward the earlier half of the movie, that although it was key to portray the characteristics of the townspeople, could have been sped up. Also the introduction of the girl in white, could have come earlier, and maybe some more interaction between her and the Piper in order to establish more of a relationship than what they had.

One thing I can always say about these movies, is how I greatly appreciate the styles. Unfiltered, and more mature then many American cartoons, it's refreshing to see animation in stop motion, and in styles that may be described as "more adult" and styles that are unique outside of the realm of bright, flashy colors and smooth lines. 

Anyway, later gators~~