Miniature Theatre
Miniature Theatre
| 31 March 1906 (USA)
Miniature Theatre Trailers

Three young children set up a table, and on the table is placed a miniature stage. The stage curtain opens, a carpet appears, and then the carpet unrolls by itself. Two puppet figures then come out and begin to perform a series of routines.

Reviews
Beystiman

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

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Micah Lloyd

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

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Roy Hart

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

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Ezmae Chang

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

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MartinHafer

When "Miniature Theatre" began, I was bowled over by the look of the film. Like a few of the Pathe Brothers films, this one was hand colored---literally meaning that an assembly line of women painted each individual cel on the film to make it a color film. As far as the color goes, it tended to be mostly gold and grey--but it was very, very striking.The film begins with a couple kids setting up a miniature theater and then, using stop-motion, some dolls perform three acts. One consists of dolls sword fighting, the next they boxed and in the final act, another doll does some gymnastics. There really isn't much here as far as plot goes, but the stop-motion quality was exceptionally nice-especially in such an early film. Oddly entertaining, this is still worth seeing over a hundred years later.By the way, I have no idea why the film uses the word 'electric'--it seems to have nothing to do with the story.

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tavm

Just watched this silent doll animated short on the UCLA Preserved Silent Animation site. Directed by Segundo de Chomon, whose El Hotel Electrico I reviewed a few years ago, this one's hand-colored tinted. The beginning sequence has three children, two boys and a girl, by themselves with the girl playing with her doll while the boys are running around in preparation for their puppet show. The first act-signaled by the number on the curtain-has two little male puppets fencing. The second act has them fist fighting. Because of decomposing, the third act is gone though we see the curtain with that number which cuts to the fourth one where a man puppet goes on the parallel bars before letting those move away as he literally flies on air. The end. While primitive, Miniature Theatre (or Bob's Electrical Theatre as it was printed on the version I saw) is fascinating to watch when one considers the history of film animation. So on that note, it's worth a look.

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JoeytheBrit

Spanish director Segundo de Chomon made a number of trick colour films for Pathe in the early twentieth century. This is quite an entertaining example of stop-motion photography which, while it might look quite run of the mill today was quite advanced for its time.The film is stencil tinted with colour - as many of de Chomon's films were. It opens with three (real) children deciding to hold a theatrical show using their miniature stage. The camera closes in on the stage and the viewer is treated to a number of 'acts,' most of which involve a couple of toys fighting and wrestling each other. It's pretty simple stuff by today's standards but young kids should still be entertained.

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Snow Leopard

This novelty/special effects feature is pleasant to watch, and though much of it is somewhat bland, it has some energy and is sometimes colorful as well. Though it has now faded somewhat, there are some stretches in which the hand-tinted color works particularly well.The story starts with three children setting up a miniature stage, which then hosts some miniature puppet figures that perform a variety of acts. Most of the routines by the figures are a bit bland, but just watching them in action is rather agreeable. In themselves, the special effects are about average for the time. The jerkiness of their movements is probably a deliberate style choice.The children are not on screen for very long, but they are rather lively, especially the one who introduces the show. Overall, the feature is probably just about average, mostly worth seeing for its innocent energy and the novelty camera effects.

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