Amazon.com

Nominally,Allegro Non Troppo is an Italian spoof of Disney's classic Fantasia, and with its commentary on the human condition and its consequences, the film goes in thematic directions Disney would never have touched.Interspersed with the animation are black-and-white segments that involve a dictatorial conductor, a mousy animator, an orchestra full of old ladies, and a blowhard director.The animator is Italian comic Maurizio Nichetti, and the style is broad slapstick humor that stands in sharp contrast to the animated parts.Synced to Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun is a vignette involving a satyr and his efforts to attract nymphs while fighting the effects of age, set perfectly to the mood of the piece. "Valse Triste" is set to the story of an abandoned cat as he wanders a derelict (war-torn?) building and remembers how things were when he had a more comfortable life.An incredibly imaginative segment is set to Ravel's "Bolero"; astronauts drop a Coke bottle on a planet and the story of evolution is traced, beginning in the bottle.A piece set to Stravinsky's The Firebird begs the question: what if it were a perfect world and Adam and Eve had resisted the temptation of the apple in the Garden of Eden? The style of the animation calls to mind late-'60s pop-art icon Peter Max, Yellow Submarine, and even the paintings of Bosch; what Allegro Non Troppo lacks in the visual detail of the Disney film, it makes up forin inventiveness, emotional depth, and wit. Be advised, though, that manysegments are more adult in theme and not very suitable for kids.The pratfalls and gags of the live-action interludes seem out of place until they provide some relief from the pathos of some of the animation (like "Valse Triste," a real tear-jerker). This is an important animated film that has been somewhat neglected after its popularity in the '70s, and a must-see for animation fans.--Jerry Renshaw ... Read more

Reviews (22)

Finally,..to be released on DVD
I have the laserdisc of Allegro Non Troppo, and it's good to see that it's finally going to be released on DVD. As most readers of this already know, ANT is Bruno Bozzetto's Fantasia-styled movie. ANT has a beautiful sense of humor that no Disney animated movie has had. Some of the animation in some of the scenes is "primitive" compared to Fantasia, but the simple animation works very well with the humorous scenes. My favorite animated scenes? Slavonic Dance and the Finale. Very funny stuff (and very simply drawn, too.) This is a great movie and I hope it gets proper treatment for DVD. One thing that appears to be missing from the DVD is the English-dubbed track for the live-action scenes between the animated scenes. It will be nice to hear the original Italian dialog, but I will not be able to understand it and have to rely on the subtitles. It's sad that the English dubbing has not been included. (Why hasn't it been included?) Especially in comedies like ANT, dubbing into other languages can be used for comedic effect. (An extreme example of this is What's Up, Tiger Lily?) For this reason, I'm giving 4 stars for the DVD. Despite the lack of the English track, I'm eagerly awaiting the DVD's release...but I will still hang on to my laserdisc.

Brilliant animation, pretty good satire
It's okay to like Fantasia and Allegro non troppo too. But they're not the same, which makes the satire of Disney so funny, especially after 20 years of massive Disney expansionism.

Animating music, which is inherently abstract, is always a risk. However, if you aren't too worried about everything being pretty (like in Fantasia), this film will work for you. How can you tell? If you're still dry-eyed after watching the Sibelius Walse triste sequence, there's something wrong with you.

Highly Entertaining
I'd seen this in college (about 1979?) as required for a music course. There were no Italian translations, and I mostly found it confusing. The DVD release has subtitles, and is most enjoyable. I especially found the "Best of" additional short works funny and mildly political (love/peace/green earth hippie ideals of the 1960's and 1970's). There's enough sexual content and mild nudity that I'd would suggest not for younger than 10 year olds.

Superb!
This really is a wonder to behold. The animation is breath taking and the stories are straight from the heart. Much better than Fantasia. Also, the bonus footage on the DVD is wonderful. Buy this DVD!

Video for Music Class
Allegro Non Troppo is the best animated feature I have ever seen. All the humor and pathos of music are creatively expressed in each segment. I saw this feature in college and have never forgotten it. My favorite part is the "Sad Waltz" (Valse Triste) by Sibelius. ABSOLUTELY STUNNING! I will be using parts of the movie in my music classes. The kids need something new and fresh. ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

This adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland mixes animation and live action to create a dreamlike world, but don't let that fool you into thinking it's simply a kid's film. Young Alice (Kristyna Kohoutová, spoken by Camilla Power) watches a stuffed and mounted rabbit come to life in her playroom and follows it through a magical drawer into a strange world that resembles a 19th-century toy store come to life, with a few specimens from a natural history museum thrown in. Czech animator Jan Svankmajer retains the familiar story elements but tweaks them with bizarre imagery brought to herky-jerky life with his spasmodic style of stop-motion animation. The caterpillar becomes a sock puppet with dentures, while other crazy creatures materialize as creepy skull-headed beings that bleed sawdust. Throughout the tale Svankmajer returns to punctuating close-ups of Alice's lips telling the story, just to remind us that this is a tale told. In the best surrealist tradition Svankmajer uses familiar objects in unfamiliar ways, giving a fantasy quality to the banal (and the not so banal) while tipping the dream logic to the edge of nightmare. While the imagery remains more unsettling than genuinely disturbing, younger children will certainly be happier with Disney's brightly colored animated classic Alice in Wonderland. Older children and adults will better appreciate Svankmajer's sly visual wit and unusual animation style. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (32)

A decent Alice...sadly, a little known one.
This is doubtlessly the most bizarre film I have ever seen. Since it is a version of ALICE, that's okay. It holds a sort of hallucinatory shadow over the story from which it was inspired: it is a frightening look into the very desolation that comes with age. Alice herself is lost in Wonderland, perhaps an embodiment of the corruption and decay that follows the subversion of childhood. The characters of the book have been reduced to dead, mindless things here: the White Rabbit is a taxidermist's expirament; the Mad Hatter is a marionette; the March Hare is a stuffed animal. These characters, void of life and thought, seem to represent the dull world of adulthood, where the repetitive events of every day are hammered out endlessly, and seen without the color or whimsy they hold when seen through the eyes of a child. The movie is doubtlessly symbolic of many things, however they are so cryptically presented that I cannot figure any of them out for myself. The movie itself is not fun to watch, it is rather tedious, in fact: but it holds a subconscious power over the viewer, he sees with astonished eyes Alice moving through the doorways and drawerways of the decaying realm. The viewer becomes part of a different sphere of consciousness: he lingers with Alice in a perpetual dream-state, or, a nightmare from which he cannot awake, until the last scant bit of dilogue is recited, and the final credits roll. Svankmajere (or however you spell it) has a fine taste for the macabre, and by moving as far from Carroll's story as possible, he does it ironic justice. By moulding the plot to form his own tightly-knit fantasy, he does not sabotage the feel of the book, but intensifies it. For this he deserves praise. With Alice we feel every bit of menace and curiosity, a trait rarely found in films. This one touches profoundly and unexplainably with the child inside us, and for the lapse of its running time we become part of another world, one which we are anxious to escape while we linger in it, but feel obsessively drawn back to after the return to our conscious states.

Svankmajer's hugely influential chef d'oeuvre
The influence of Jan Svankmajer's 1988 ALICE on the art and film and deisgn of the 1990s and beyond is enormous: you can see it almost evidently in the films of the Brothers Quay and David Fincher as well as in every beautifully designed magazine you open today. Svankmajer took the Lewis Carroll story and transposed it to a world which seems totalitarian in nature, and beautifully shabby and eroded in look, where everything is chappied and falling to pieces. The white rabbit is a terrifying taxidermic model, with huge teeth and glass eyes; it pulls itself from its mounting pins and bleeds sawdust when opened. The fall down the rabbit hole is a dark descent by elevator down through what seems to be a beautifully decrepit storage warehouse: the small animals Alice encounters are skull-headed toys.

All this is beautiful, and creates a stunningly original aesthetic. It's also sometimes a bit creepy, and (worse) at times exceptionally tedious. (You think if you get one more extreme close-up of Alice's lips telling the tale you'll scream.) It's something to pore over shot by shot or sequence by sequence, but it's not particularly entertaining by any means. But it is something that still deserves to be seen again and again.

"Said the Queen of Hearts"
There are only two negatives to this film that I felt were mostly unnecessary elements. One was the frequent edit to a close-up of Alice's, excuse me "Alenka's," tiny mouth and stained yellow teeth saying things like "Said the White Rabbit" or "Said the Queen of Hearts." By the time this monotony reached the double-digits I was getting annoyed. I knew which character said what, and I didn't need a constant reminder. The other negative, and this is up for debate, is that I don't like foreign films that are dubbed in English. Call me crazy, but I prefer subtitles. There is always something lost in the translation. Well, enough of my negativity. There is plenty here worth seeing, and if you are a genuine nut-case for stop-motion filmmaking than you should thoroughly enjoy this movie. This is not a children's film! There are way too many unnerving and nightmarish sequences. In fact, this film feels like a surreal nightmare! There's a slab of meat that squirms into a pot, there are little rat skulls breaking out of egg shells, and my favorite moment of the film comes when Alice is being chased by the White Rabbit and his grotesque friends. Alice slams the door and bars the smaller door at the base. Suddenly, an axe-head bursts through the tiny door repeatedly until it is completely splintered. The axe withdraws and the head of the White Rabbit(a stuffed rabbit with sawdust for entrails) pokes through and he seems to stare at Alice with an evil glare from his glassy white eyes. I expected him to say "Heeeere's Thumper!" That was the creepiest moment for me, but there are others. There are also some wrenching sound effects that add some excellent flavor to the nightmarish proceedings. If it wasn't for the extremely annoying and frequent cutaways to Alice's slimy mouth I may have given this film a higher rating. That, and she has a gross habit of puting everything she finds into her mouth. One thing she tries is a key she finds inside a sardine tin filled with oil. Instead of wiping the key clean on her dress she gives it one good, long slurp. Yuck! Even she grimaced, much to my delight. "Overall, this is a good movie with plenty of jarring scenes and dream-like sequences that are haunting me to this day," said the Amazon.com reviewer. There is also a short stop-motion film on this DVD that is "definitely" not for children, but it does have some humorous moments. Take it easy.

very drugged
While I have never been on acid, I believe that watching this movie is a lot like taking some sort of hallucinogen. It's tweak.

Probably Svankmajer's best movie
If you are unfamiliar with Svankmajer, it may be best to start with Alice. It is his most stylish and least morbid and grotesque long feature.

Sounds appealing? Actually it is a masterpiece. Like his other movies it is not for everyone, but it promises a unique movie experience. ... Read more

Description

The delicacy of oriental art and a refined technical sense characterize the best animation from Japan.Representative artists include Renzo and Sayoko Kinoshita, Yoji Kuri, Kihachiro Kawamoto, and Osamu Tezuka.Computer animation has opened up new horizons in space research, medicine, advertising, architecture, entertainment, and the arts.This sweeping worldwide survey includes works by Pacific Data Images, Toyolinks Corporation, Sogitec Audiovisuel, The Moving Picture Company, and Ko Makajima. ... Read more

Description

Animators from Great Britain, Italy, and France have created some of the world's most innovative animation.Interviews with John Halas, Joy Batchelor, John Coates, Emanuele Luzzati, and Giulio Gianini illuminate their works.Films by George Dunning, Bruno Bozzetto, Osvaldo Cavandoli, Paul Grimault, Emile Cohl, Alexeieff and Parker, Atelier Gaumont, and many other artists round out this colorful survey. ... Read more

Description

Fascinating, innovative animation from Eastern Europe. Like Zagreb, the Sofia Animation Studio carved its own unique niche with an original graphic style, quirky storytelling, and dark comedy. The studio's films have won many awards and prizes, and its biannual World Animation Film Festival in Varna solidified Bulgaria as an international animation center. Rembrandt Films is offering these films, all of which are appropriate for children, on video for the first time. A choice experience for the entire family. Included in this collection: The Intelligent Village, Baby Dreams at the Airport, Baby Dreams at the Automobile Factory, De Facto, Three Fools and the Automobile, Beach, Caw!, Left Right. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Exquisite cacophony of images
Jan Svankmajer, whose name is almost always mentioned in the same breath as the Brothers Quay, is an animator with a deeply philosophical, psychological bent whose mode de employ is the infinite variety of the grotesque. If you appreciate Joel-Peter Whitkin's stills, you will love Svankmajers films. Objects animated are people, tubers, taxidermilogical failures, etc. Svankmayer takes a thousand separate, shocking little pieces and combines them into a sublimely shocking whole. The end product is always bafflingly surreal and so over the top as to be beatific. His filmography is made up mostly of shorts, and two other feature length films, Alice (1988) and Faust (1996), all would be worth some footwork to catch a glimpse of his intricately wrought madness.

Conspirators is a cohesive series of vignettes about obsessive-compulsive fetishists whose paths cross, in so doing sparking a series of respective erotic destinies that are fulfilled via a spiraling puzzle like path. The movie itself defines fetishism, turning the everyday object or occurrence into a meaning laden ritual; in these cases lives are compelled by a collection of huge fetish projects: the porno stand engineer who is so in love with images that he constructs a television that can be made to love him back; the mail carrier who maniacally turns loaves of bread into compact little balls that she delivers to the news anchor who feeds them to carp who live in a bucket under her desk and get her off on camera (as part of the engineer's project); her husband who hears symphonies in pursuit of junk he later constructs tools that de Sade would have cried over; and a pair of neighbors who obsess over each other's murders, whose will finds a magical way. This film is a must-see just for the exquisite detail with which the nameless protagonist constructs the piece de triumph of all fetish objects- it cannot be hinted at in less than a volume. These frames speak volumes, a wordless cacophony. Conspirators could be seen as a sort of "The Making Of" a Jan Svankmajer animation- the sympathetic voodoo magic worked by a team of discreet players so intense that genius is sparked and makes vital and gorgeous the previously inert and obscene. I'd give this film one star for each story's achievement, plus one for the opening sequence of *truly* bizarre 17th Century porno woodcuts. A must see.

Two reviewers jointly favor Czech animator.
Conspirators was spectacular in weaving its characters and their strangeness together. I couldn't wait to see what happened next. American film keeps us sadly stuck in the 1980s, bullied into accepting only computer animation because it is easy, unsupportably expensive and you can do it with a pull-down menu. Jan Svankmajer's animation is hands-on, time-intensive studio work and palpably realistic. It challenges the limitations of that generation whose imaginations were teethed on music video. Svankmajer is comical, insightful and grotesque as a children's folk tale. He is a singularly visual storyteller. If you want a taste of Svankmajer and aren't ready for an adult theme, start with Alice.

good for begginers
this one from Jan was cool,but just not quite as trippy as Faust or his collection of short film dvds,I thought.I did think it was funny though!I liked the short film "food"(included w/ the dvd)better than "conspirators of pleasure",actually-and you can get that short w/ the jan collected shorts vol. 2 dvd.I couldn't see paying $26 for this dvd, though.get alice,collected shorts 1+2,or faust before this one.those are actually more worth the money as far as I'm concerned.

Utterly brilliant . . .
This was my introduction to Svankmajer -- and I am floored, even more so because his short "Food" is on this DVD as well. Many folks assume that they have a taste for underground cinema because they (rightly) prefer "Withnail & I" to the latest Queen Latifa/Steve Martin muck, and they've seen "Man Bites Dog" a couple of times . . . but this is REALLY underground cinema. It doesn't jiggle the camera or have a shallow visual gimmick like "Waking Life" -- it is hard to exactly give the flavor of this film. None of the audio is live, it seems -- and the exaggerated foley work of hands squishing clay and rolling little balls of bread with spit and even squeezing a tube of glue all becomes decadently marvelous. As these various folk pursue their, um, completely non-traditional fetishes, no explanations are given, and no ultimate conclusion to anything. But each individual minute is precious. This isn't a film where you can say to those who dislike it, "You didn't get it." There is nothing to "get" in that sense -- but how much tactile strangeness can you delight in? I think it is a masterpiece. Give it a try. Let the rest of the public go on thinking that insipid fluff like "Lost in Translation" is independently-minded cinema. THIS is the authentic underground.

"Fringe" doesn't even begin to describe it
This movie is so weird that I don't even know what to think of it. I question whether it is a truly Surrealist film - it's certainly a very _strange_ film, but "surreal" does not mean "strange", and it's time we buried that misconception once and for all - but it will likely appeal to fans of Surrealism and other avant-garde art.

The film follows about half a dozen characters through the machinations of their utterly bizarre fetishes - a woman who gets off by stuffing bread balls up her nose, a man who delights in the texture of live fish, and - well, I'm not even going to try to describe the chicken guy. Though the characters don't always realize it, their secret pursuits are linked by a web of tangents and coincidence.

Though the characters are ostensibly pursuing _sexual_ fetishes, there is very little about this movie that seems sexual. Real fetishes usually involve playing with power or social roles, but these people just like really specific (and really strange) inanimate objects. Their perversions seem to be more about the ritual than anything else.

Though the movie is mostly live-action, there are some of Svankmajer's trademark stop-motion sequences, such as the chicken man's rampage through the forest. Also, there is zero dialogue throughout the entire film, which actually works quite well, forcing the viewer to engage the unfolding events more directly, and contributing to the overall feeling of "what the [heck]are they doing?!"

Maybe this film is just the product of sheer self-indulgence on the part of Svankmajer, but it will certainly challenge you to think. I'm giving it the median rating of 3 stars not because it's a bad film (or because it's a _good_ film), but because it doesn't even exist on that continuum. It is what it is. You'll have to see it for yourself. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Three excellent examples of late-period Svankmajer.
Jan Svankmajer is most famous for his idiosyncratic burrowing of classic Gothic and fairy tales and children's stories, but this collection atttests to the diversity of the animator's oeuvre. 'Darkness/Light/Darkness' is typical of more sculptured works like 'Dimensions Of Dialogue', in which human forms are dismantled, scattered, merged and weirdly reconstructed; the physical and tactile becomes abstract in the process, and vice versa.

'The Death Of Stalinism In Bohemia' has been called Svankmajer's most political film. This is to miss the subversion and protest underlying all his work: nevertheless, the piece is ironically subtitled 'A Work Of Agitprop' (the term used by Bolsheviks in the early days of the Russian Revolution for propagandist artworks intended to ideologically galvanise the recipient). Made in the year after the Velvet Revolution, the film is best appreciated by Czech audiences who will understand the references, although it still reveals continuity with his previous work, to which it makes playful allusion. Against a berserk collage of Soviet iconography, a photomontage of Czech communists, and a soundtrack of Socialist choral works, a plastercast of Stalin goes through a variety of mutations - giving birth in a gruesome autopsy to a Czech stooge (apparently the communist who bloodily purged the party, and instituted Stalinism in the country); being painted over
in the Czech flag; lumbering Frankenstein-like in the new Czechoslovakia, after we've seen a Golem-like assembly line of heroic clay workers. The energy and iconoclastic fury of the piece recalls the Dada satires of John Heartfield, and the fierce humour rescues the more didactic moments. The 'art' used to bolster this regime is exposed, but the connection made between the animator as moulder and creator of moving figures, and Stalin as godlike totalitarian puppetmaster, is disturbingly honest.

The masterpiece in the collection is 'Virile Games', which is very reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's 'Monty Python' animations in its use of puppetry and photo-manipulation. A man sits down with a supply of beer and shortbread to watch a football match on TV - these fragmentary domestic scenes are intercut with documentary footage of a crowd assembling at a stadium - this disparity between the individual and the mass, the private and the public, the fantastically disruptive and the violently conformist, will break down as the short continues. The soccer match itself might have been reimagined by Magritte - the cut-out players and referee are all images of the viewer. In this game, the object is not to score goals, but to physically destroy the head of your opponent, eg by gouging out his eyes with a plunger; or inflating it with a syringe until it bursts; or running a toy train through his mouth. The resulting corpses are collected by speedily efficient medics who carry them to undertakers - the sealed coffins are painted in team colours, and rejoin the match. All this against delicious Eastern bloc elevator music. When the viewer runs out of snacks, his projecting desire goes haywire: the football pitch transfers to his messy living room. The results are exhilerating, sinister, inventive, unexpected, disgusting and hilarious.

These works come from the end of the Communist era, when censorship problems no longer dogged the surrealist's work, and he could deal with his themes more openly (to the detriment, some say, of his work) - watching them after some of Svankmajer's oppressively murky earlier work is like coming up for air.

Scenes From The Surreal By Jan Svankmajer
For anyone out there interested in stop-motion claymation and in film art in general, this is the movie for you, it is filled with an essence of visceral dark humor, with political undertones. This movie among others of Jan Svankmajer is pure Genius!!!!!

Scenes From The Surreal By Jan Svankmajer
This movie encompasses several different medias rolled into one. It has live stop motion animation, human actors, and a little bit of animation. For anyone out there interested in art in general or film art, I recommend this one. It is visceral, but with a touch of dark humor that will make you yearn for more Jan Svankmajer videos. True Genius!!!!

Beautiful like a heart full of sharks
Scenes From the Surreal questions the drama of the body, tha absurdity of human kind customs and the terrorific atmosphere of governments and society. Svankmajer let us now that life is a dream we never reach, that we survive within a society full of living dead. The poetry of Svankmajer showed in this 3 videos is violent, just a like a bird eating his own wings.

Svankmajer's content and style educates while entertains
Scenes from the Surreal is composed of three seperate sections. The first dealing with creation of man making comic use of claymation, modernism, and Svanmajer's own imagination. The second section creates a morbid interpretation about the competitivness of athletics, displayed in a soccer game to the death. The third section deals with the views of the communism take-over and the patriotism of the nations. Very passionate and imaginative. Awakens the viewers to the social aspects of history and social view, while being entertained by claymation characters. To end, Svankmajer has an informative interview. I enjoyed this production thouroughly ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Classic
This is one of the most interesting animated films I've seen. The sillouhettes (sp?) are remarkable against the color tinted backgrounds. The plot has many twists and turns, but the viewer never gets lost in the plot. It will have you intrigued from the beginning right to the end.

This is a retelling of "The Arabian Nights." The animation is much smoother than that of some stop motion animation (ie the Rankin-Bass holiday programs). If you are a fan of "The Arabian Nights" or "Aladdin" (the Aladdin story is also told in this feature), then this movie is for you.

Beautiful!
I just saw this movie, and I can tell you, it's too beautiful for children! The scenes are reminiscent of Erte', the story and animation are fantastic. The story itself is like a Wagnerian opera, full of unending plot twists and perils for the hero and heroine. The animation, done in a silhouette style,is sophisticated and yet hauntingly sensitive. Just a film that takes you into a world of beauty and fantasy, without being the least sugary or sappy. A world that is no more,before everything had to be "dumbed down" and made "cutesy" for children-when it was expected that they could appreciate a charm that adults could share-see this film!

Beautiful Animation from 1926
A silent animated film created in 1926 by German artist Lotte Reiniger. Considered to be the first full-length animated feature at 65 minutes, what makes this so special is not the story, but the animation itself which sets itself apart from anything tradional or even experimental Disney has done in their youth. All the characters and sets are done in silhouette from paper cut outs with hinges to manipulate the peoples actions. The result is an incredible and unique look that has never been matched before or since. Reineger certainly has her work cut out for her as she mastered this format throughout the rest of her career. In this video, in addition to the main feature which is a story from the Arabian Nights, is also a commercial Reineger did for the German creme company, as well as a 60-minute documentary on Lottes life. The documentary is bit slow, but it does display many of her other works, equally obscure and beautiful. If you are interested in classic cinema or animation, then by all means, you really should see this. While watching this, I am surprised that Disney showed no signs of influence in their early experimental stages. Highly reccomended classic! ... Read more

Amazon.com

Although Bruno Bozzetto is best known in America for Allegro Non Troppo, his animated feature spoofing Disney's Fantasia, his short films have been winning awards at international festivals for three decades. These more personal films use simple graphics, lively animation, and nonverbal soundtracks to present wry commentaries on the problems of a neurotic and wasteful society. In a live-action interview from his home in Bergamo, Italy, Bozzetto talks about his interest in using animation to make audiences laugh and think; these imaginative shorts fulfill both functions admirably. In "Self-Service," he uses silly-looking mosquitoes to satirize Prohibition and the madness of a petroleum-based economy. "Baby Story" offers a singularly absurd look at the facts of life, while the delightfully macabre "Dancing" gives new meaning to the old concept of the dance of death. "Grasshoppers" juxtaposes the rise and fall of human empires with the annual reappearance of grass and the insects that feed upon it. One image represents balance and harmony; the other, wanton cruelty and destruction. Bozzetto's early successes, "Tapum: A History of Weapons" and "Two Castles," aren't included on this tape, but it remains a delightful sampling of the talented filmmaker's work.

This unrated video is suitable for ages 14 and older for adult themes, cartoon nudity, and violence. The collection contains: 1. "Self-Service," 2. "Baeus," 3. "Drop," 4. "A Life in a Tin," 5. "Baby Story," 6. "Sigmund," 7. "Dancing," 8. "An Oscar for Mr. Rossi," 9. "Mr. Rossi Buys a Car," 10. "Ego," 11. "Big Bang," 12. "Man and His World," 13. "Pickles," 14. "Grasshoppers." --Charles Solomon ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Nice Italian Animation collection...
It's nice to have these classic Bozzetto cartoons all in one tape, but they could've left the ORIGINAL Italian titles in place instead of the cheesy English ones wizzing past the camera. I gave it four stars [instead of five] because I remember seeing the first film 'Self Service' back in 1979, and this tape has a scene missing! Who knows what might've been cut out of the other cartoons?
On the good side, it's great to have Bruno himself introduce himself, talk about his career & introduce some of the cartoons and many of these I'd never heard of before.
A nice addition to anyone who likes Bozzetto or world-wide animation. Much of the material IS however aimed at Adults so please don't be one of those parents who 'buys it for their kids' because you'll have alot of 'explaining' to do afterwards! ... Read more

Reviews (22)

Finally,..to be released on DVD
I have the laserdisc of Allegro Non Troppo, and it's good to see that it's finally going to be released on DVD. As most readers of this already know, ANT is Bruno Bozzetto's Fantasia-styled movie. ANT has a beautiful sense of humor that no Disney animated movie has had. Some of the animation in some of the scenes is "primitive" compared to Fantasia, but the simple animation works very well with the humorous scenes. My favorite animated scenes? Slavonic Dance and the Finale. Very funny stuff (and very simply drawn, too.) This is a great movie and I hope it gets proper treatment for DVD. One thing that appears to be missing from the DVD is the English-dubbed track for the live-action scenes between the animated scenes. It will be nice to hear the original Italian dialog, but I will not be able to understand it and have to rely on the subtitles. It's sad that the English dubbing has not been included. (Why hasn't it been included?) Especially in comedies like ANT, dubbing into other languages can be used for comedic effect. (An extreme example of this is What's Up, Tiger Lily?) For this reason, I'm giving 4 stars for the DVD. Despite the lack of the English track, I'm eagerly awaiting the DVD's release...but I will still hang on to my laserdisc.

Brilliant animation, pretty good satire
It's okay to like Fantasia and Allegro non troppo too. But they're not the same, which makes the satire of Disney so funny, especially after 20 years of massive Disney expansionism.

Animating music, which is inherently abstract, is always a risk. However, if you aren't too worried about everything being pretty (like in Fantasia), this film will work for you. How can you tell? If you're still dry-eyed after watching the Sibelius Walse triste sequence, there's something wrong with you.

Highly Entertaining
I'd seen this in college (about 1979?) as required for a music course. There were no Italian translations, and I mostly found it confusing. The DVD release has subtitles, and is most enjoyable. I especially found the "Best of" additional short works funny and mildly political (love/peace/green earth hippie ideals of the 1960's and 1970's). There's enough sexual content and mild nudity that I'd would suggest not for younger than 10 year olds.

Superb!
This really is a wonder to behold. The animation is breath taking and the stories are straight from the heart. Much better than Fantasia. Also, the bonus footage on the DVD is wonderful. Buy this DVD!

Video for Music Class
Allegro Non Troppo is the best animated feature I have ever seen. All the humor and pathos of music are creatively expressed in each segment. I saw this feature in college and have never forgotten it. My favorite part is the "Sad Waltz" (Valse Triste) by Sibelius. ABSOLUTELY STUNNING! I will be using parts of the movie in my music classes. The kids need something new and fresh. ... Read more

Reviews (52)

Strange but Good
Fantastic Planet is a movie that anyone can love and enjoy. The movie is a true spectacle of filmmking.

Of course, it has its share of problems (ending is extremely rushed, characters lack personality, dubbing is so bad, its not even funny) but if you just sit back and look at this movie/DVD as a whole, you get something very good. Its so good, it merits itself to be a mandatory part of any eccentric person's DVD collection. (It was actually the 1st DVD I'd ever owned.)

The plot follows the story of one "om" (human) who is kept as a little palm-sized pet for the gigantic, blue skinned traags. He escapes with a traag learning device and uses it along with other wild oms to rebel against the traags.

An interesting aspect of the movie, is that it does almost nothing to make you know the main character. He is an incredibly ambiguous being devoid of any real personality, and if memory serves, he doesn't even have a name.

The animation looks like they made thin outlines and filled them with color-pencils. This creates an effect that totally mistifies the viewer. The beautiful and vid landscapes come alive along side imaginatively drawn characters and various monsters.

Ultimately the movie is great, and any problems in the movies are made up for by the fact that there ARE other short films on the DVD.

Finally, the subtitles are much better than the dub; use them.

EDIT: Now that I've finally gotten to watch the magnificent short films included on the DVD, I can say, they're the most freakish, disturbed, and wonderful pieces of short animation ever.

The best one features a sad farmer whose crops don't grow. So he cries on them and they become huge. So snails eat them and then they become huge, adn start terrorizing the city. The farmer is sad again and this time, he grows gargantuan carrots and the short closes with a hilarious shot of some rabbits eyeing the food expectantly.

Don't get the version by United American
Fantastic Planet is by far one of the more unusual animated I have ever seen. Truly unusual and surrealistic scenes, and that funky Pink Floyd meets "Shaft"-style soundtrack by Alain Goraguer gives the movie that truly '70s look and feel. But I warn you to stay away from the earlier VHS edition from United American Video Corps. While the newer dubbed-in-English VHS from Anchor Bay has the problem of forgetting to remove the subtitles, the United American Video Corps. version suffers from poor picture quality, and several missing scenes, not to mention a lot of the animation seems rather choppy. Anchor Bay fixed that problem with better picture quality, and all the scenes intact, and without that choppy animation in certain places. The only advantage United American version has is no subtitles, but since it's not widescreen, you won't be able to see everything. Despite the drawback of subtitles on the Anchor Bay version, if you want the dubbed-in-English version of this European sci-fi masterpiece, go for the Anchor Bay version and avoid the earlier United American edition.

Mind Blowing
I didn't expect much from the story. I bought it because I love this style of animation. Some of the scenes were very psychedelic, almost like an acid trip. It turns out that the story was actually the most entertaining part of the movie for me. It definitely gives you a different perspective of human life.

The DVD included four interesting shorts put out by the creator. Most of them included live action as well as animation. The only reason I can't give a full 5 stars is because the subtitles are HORRIBLE. Among the worst i've ever seen. There's little contrast between the background and the text, so about 75% of the words are legible. I really don't understand why the publishers thought this would be acceptable. I took French for several years, but I can imagine how frustrating it would be for someone trying to read that text.

More Whining About Subtitles!
YOU CAN'T TURN THEM OFF, PEOPLE!!! AND they run right over the picture, not even in the black letterboxed space beneath! AND (and even if you could forgive not being able to turn them off, this next one is really too, too much to take) MORE THAN HALF THE TIME THEY DON'T MATCH THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION!!!! This last bit takes it from annoying to insufferable. I love Fantastic Planet, and I hate, hate, hate this DVD.

Please read MY review FIRST...
I've noticed that TOO MANY people have ruined many products on Amazon before they're even sold with their uptight fierce complaints disguised as 'reviews'!
That unfortunately has happened also with THIS DVD! All I can say is BUY IT! IT'S GREAT! No complaints!....
Now, the reason I am so "FOR" this release is I've had a VHS copy of this film for years [on the 'Embassy Home Video' label] and it was fine. It had the english dubbed-in voices & NO 'subtitles'. I got THAT copy after FIRST seeing it on the SCI-FI channel in 1995, [although I've heard of this movie ever since I can remember!] and later bought a "Video YesterYear" release that had faded colour & a whole scene cut out! Like most of us movie & TV on home video fans, I've been looking for a 'DVD' release....and THIS is IT!!
Sure everyone whines about the infamous 'subtitles', but criminey! HOW many other 'foreign' [YES! 'FOREIGN'] films out there have them?? The soundtrack of this DVD version has the beautiful original French dialogue & music - OR -the option of the English dubbed version, which sounds like it's coming over the telephone for some strange reason[?] So, I recommend watching it with the original 'French' and THEN the non-removable subtitles work PERFECTLY! You'll be GLAD they ARE there!
The BEST part of this DVD version is the inclusion of the earlier 3 Rene Laloux films 'Monkeys Teeth' 'Dead Times' & 'The Snails'! That's the MAIN reason I BOUGHT this! Then again, I'm into obscure foreign animation from the past and don't go berserk if there are 'subtitles'... Yes, they COULD have issued the DVD with 'Closed Captioning', THEN you could remove the subtitles if you want, but they didn't, so there.
Anyone out there seen the "Masters of Russian Animation" series on DVD? Well, THEY have non-removable subtitles too, but if you like the animation for it's own sake, you'll enjoy the films but if you're bothered by mere 'subtitles', then you're MISSING alot of great examples of animation.
Also, anyone who likes the Alain Gorageur soundtrack for FANTASTIC PLANET will ALSO like the 1960s/70s music of composer/arranger "David Axelrod". Very similiar.
What I'm doing here is 'RECOMMENDING' items friends, [like the folks at Amazon suggest], NOT 'tearing things down'. If I believed ALL the negative reviews people have put on this site, I'd NEVER buy ANYTHING! Glad I trust my own instincts & hope you do too. If you can't say something nice don't say anything, I always thought.... OK, I'll shut-up now [:-)] ... Read more

Description

YURI NORSTEIN is universally considered the most remarkable director to emerge from the current generation of Russian animators.Although his body of completed work is less than 80 minutes in length, its impact has been so profound that he is regularly ranked one of the world's greatest contemporary directors.

Most of his films were made by the same small team, his wife the artist Francesca Yarbusova, his cameraman the late Alexander Zhukovsky, and the late composer M. Meyerovich.

All of the films included in this edition of the Norstein Collection were digitally re-mastered from new 35mm prints under the supervision ofZhukovsky, to whom it is dedicated.Films included in the video:TALE OF TALES, HEDGEHOG IN THE FOG, HERON AND CRANE, FOX AND RABBIT, BATTLE OF KERJENETS (co-directed with I. Ivanov-Vano) and 25th-First Day. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Uriy Norstein
it's the most wonderful cartoons I've ever seen!

Absolute Genius
Yuri Norstein is arguably the single greatest animator of this century. Yet, most of us in the West have never heard of him. Norstein studied film under the great Russian filmmaker, Sergei Eisenstein, father of the montage and was a contemporary of Andrei Tarkovsky. Yet, unless you are a student of film, you probably have never heard of them either.

Genreations of great film works from Russia have been hidden from the general public. While I have had only glimpses of Norstein's works in the past and have been forever haunted by their erie beauty, I never thought there was enough interest for someone to put out a collection such as this. The producers have done an excellent job. The film-to-tape transfers are a huge improvement from even the old broadcast masters I remember which played on PBS (and introduced me to his works in the first place).

It is difficult to describe his style.Try to imagine a children's story book that moves, but you don't know if the "pictures" are drawings, photographs, or 3D. Everything seems to blend in and out of a pervasive fog. When you see these images for the first time, you cannot help but be awestruck. Then, while you are swooning over the lyricism of the montages, you look at the dates they were made, and then you can't move.

The Excellent Norstein Collection
For anyone who's doubted Amazon's depth of inventory, witness "Masters of Russian Animation". Until recently inaccessable to Westerners, Norstein - all these great animators, in fact - is a revelation. Such wonderful images and storytelling, such complex subjects. All this despite the amazing constraints under which the films were made. Really a treat.

A must have.
This is a must have for all lovers of animation. Norstein has the ability to create a magical world and it all comes from within. I can only say that seeing is believing. ... Read more

Description

Film Film Film (Director F. Khitruk)
Girlfriend (Director Y. Gavrilko)
Hunt (Director E. Nazarov)
Ballerina On A Boat (Director L. Atamanov) ... Read more

Description

Contact (Director V. Tarasov)
Tale Of Tales(Director Y. Norstein)
Travels Of Ant (Director E. Nazarov)
Cat & Company (Director A. Guriev) ... Read more

Reviews (16)

A rare gem of French Animation
The Time Masters is a rare example of French Animation. Despite being prolific art film makers the art of animation mainly passed them by. Therefore the skills employed in making this film are probably light years behind what Disney et al were producing with the help of the mighty Hollywood machine but that should not distract from an original and sublime vision that first captured my imagination as a young child. The Time Masters (Les Maitres du Temp in France) was inspired by L'orphelin de Perdide, a novel by French science fiction auther Stephan Wul. Importantly the design is by well known French graphic artist Mobius who is well known in comics circles for his Silver Surfer and Heavy Metal work and who also did the design for The Fifth Element. Overall this helped produce a film that was strikingly different, powerful and full of surprises even if the animation techniques were not as slick and glossy as those of Hollywood where skill and money abounded. I loved this as a kid and would expect any child today to quite enjoy its haunting story. As a big kid today I still enjoy this movie which is a rare gem of French animation. If you do enjoy this movie then check out Director René Laloux's next work La Planète sauvage (Fantastic Planet in the US I think) as you will enjoy that also.

A French animated sci-fi film designed by Moebius
After making "Fantastic Planet" Rene Laloux made this imaginative animated feature. "Time Masters" ("Les Maitres du Temps") about Jaffar (Jean Valmont), a mercenary pilot, who travels across the galaxy to save Piel (Frederic Legros), a young boy, from giant hornets on the planet desert planet Perdide. Then there are a series of other adventures and a rather surprising ending. What makes this unique is that the famous graphic artist Moebius (Jean Giraud) of "Heavy Metal" fame did the original animation sketches to this visually striking feature which I found a lot better than the cult classic "Fantastic Planet." Watch them back to back and see if you do not agree. This 76-minute animated film from 1982 is in French with English subtitles.

Time Masters
Having seen Time Masters on tv many years ago, which was dubbed into English. I have, sofar, been unable to track down a copy (DVD or VHS) of this version, (ie. with the english dubbing). Any ideas out there?.
The film itself was great with a fair few interesting deviations along the way, (though I would not have enjoyed it as much, if the tv version had been with english subtitles).
In all, a film I shall, for one, never forget.

a truly riveting film
I first saw this film when I was in my early teens and was as enthralled with it then as I am now. I haven't seen 'Fantastic Planet' so, unlike some of the other disillusioned reviewers, I cannot compare Time Masters to what they obviously consider a classic film. I may also venture that those reviewers did not see this film when they were younger because, if they had, they would no doubt look at it from a different perspective.
The animation and production may not be up to hollywood standards but Time Masters is truly a work of art and a film which has captured my imagination for almost 20 years. I am not an 'art' film afficionado and so see this film for what it is - wonderful!

Time Masters - Review not based on DVD
The animation, of course, is not that great. It does, in fact, at times seems Scooby-dooish. But the idea of the film, especially if you are a serious sci-fi fan, should please you.

I cannot comment on this particular edition, since my review is based on the countless times I've seen this film in the theater dubbed in Russian. But I was pleased to find a copy in New York years after, and was not disappointed.

The film is not recommended for children. But it is both a slightly phylosophical film, and a puzzlement for those who are interested in the time-space continium. The story itself must've been great, just as the planet of the apes, before it turned into a joke. ... Read more

Description

Island (Director F. Khitruk)
Singing Teacher (Director A. Petrov)
Liberated Don Quixote (Director V. Kurchevsky)
Last Hunt (Director V. Karavaev)
Old Stair (Director A. Gorlenko) ... Read more

Description

King's Sandwich (Director A. Khrjanovsky)
Glass Harmonica(Director A. Khrjanovsky)
There Lived Kozyavin(Director A. Khrjanovsky)
Armoire(Director A. Khrjanovsky)
Wolf and Calf (Director M.Kamenetsky)
Ball Of Yarn (Director N. Serebryakov)
My Green Crocodile (Director V. Kurchevsky) ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Uriy Norstein
it's the most wonderful cartoons I've ever seen!

Absolute Genius
Yuri Norstein is arguably the single greatest animator of this century. Yet, most of us in the West have never heard of him. Norstein studied film under the great Russian filmmaker, Sergei Eisenstein, father of the montage and was a contemporary of Andrei Tarkovsky. Yet, unless you are a student of film, you probably have never heard of them either.

Genreations of great film works from Russia have been hidden from the general public. While I have had only glimpses of Norstein's works in the past and have been forever haunted by their erie beauty, I never thought there was enough interest for someone to put out a collection such as this. The producers have done an excellent job. The film-to-tape transfers are a huge improvement from even the old broadcast masters I remember which played on PBS (and introduced me to his works in the first place).

It is difficult to describe his style.Try to imagine a children's story book that moves, but you don't know if the "pictures" are drawings, photographs, or 3D. Everything seems to blend in and out of a pervasive fog. When you see these images for the first time, you cannot help but be awestruck. Then, while you are swooning over the lyricism of the montages, you look at the dates they were made, and then you can't move.

The Excellent Norstein Collection
For anyone who's doubted Amazon's depth of inventory, witness "Masters of Russian Animation". Until recently inaccessable to Westerners, Norstein - all these great animators, in fact - is a revelation. Such wonderful images and storytelling, such complex subjects. All this despite the amazing constraints under which the films were made. Really a treat.

A must have.
This is a must have for all lovers of animation. Norstein has the ability to create a magical world and it all comes from within. I can only say that seeing is believing. ... Read more

Description

Fyodor Khitruk created a revolution in Russian animation when in 1962,during a liberal political period in Soviet history known as the "Khruschev Thaw," he directed an animated feature which focused on issues of interest to adults. His subsequent films which earned worldwide recognition for Khitruk are noted for their high professionalism, clarity of artistic language, refined taste, and wry humor. Video includes: FILM FILM FILM: A zany romp through the world of making a feature film. ... Read more