hyped garbage

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

If you're into film, you're most likely familiar with Stephen and Timothy Quay as well as Jan Švankmajer. Remarkably talented stop-motion animators, they are also distinctly different and for that reason alone worth seeing together.This film is easy to see as a mere acknowledgment, but it's more than that. Švankmajer definitely features in the film as the strangely madcap creator of illusions in his cabinet; the ambiguity then arises from the fact the boy, to me at least, is the one who explores the world and has the pep and spiritedness. He's the one whose mind is explored, put on the table and ultimately stuffed with the things the creator wants.When I think of Švankmajer, I think of a bleak reality that translates to socio-political commentary in filmic terms. The Brothers Quay, however, I associate with purely cinematic stories, their metaphorical film language not so much describing even allegorically any external condition but rather triggering solely visual reactions, much like Joyce's "Finnegans Wake", to which I already referred to in an earlier review. For me the Quay's speak more. Not that it has to be either or.

This beautiful short made by the Brothers Quay (directors of the great animated short "Street of Cocodriles") It's a captivating tale about a master and his disciple. This may sound as something very simple, but the Brothers Quay always manage to create a unique, fascinating world, with strange but very interesting characters, and strange and surreal situations as well. The animation looks beautiful and stylish, just like the other films directed by the Brothers Quay, and this little homage to Jan Svankmajer definitely worth a look, specially if you are fan of filmmakers as Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton.I liked this short a lot. I recommend it to anyone.

This is an excellent introduction to the work of the Quay Brothers and stop-motion animation. It is enjoyable for fans of Svankmajer, but also for fans of the painter Arcimboldo, whose paintings and characters are featured heavily in this short; most notably the Librarian, which is brought to 3D life as the lead puppet, and also characters from The Seasons, The Elements, and others: Vertumnus, Summer, Fire, and so forth. In fact, a subtitle in the film is Portrait of Svankmajer a la Arcimboldo. Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527 - 1593) was an Italian painter known for creating portraits composed of fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, and books, all arranged in a fashion that constitutes a portrait of a character which is represented by all those diverse elements.

Interesting grasps of motion and artistry here. The Quay Brothers pay homage to their key inspiration, though I not knowing their key inspiration well enough couldn't tell if it's all them or all Svankmejer, though this is very distinctive and beautiful stuff.Interestingly enough it reminds me a lot of Tool music videos, especially their one for Prison Sex (the room of cabinets, cabinets within cabinets, cabinets reacting to characters' curiosity, etc.), which leads me to believe that one Adam Jones is a Brothers Quay fan. Tool's video, however, seems to really focus on the creepy while this one seems a lot more interested in learning and motion. Must definitely be the Quay brothers seeing themselves as the pupil.To tell the truth the most interesting part of this short is the segment called "The child learns a lesson in 1/24th second." In case you don't know (which you should, if you're interested in experimental stuff like this), a single frame of a motion picture shoots by at 1/24th a second, or there are 24 frames per second. Thus this is probably the most self-reflexive part of the film, a little postmodern in its approach to lessons and learning of the form, which is why it's basically a series of jump cuts and a play on time. Very cool.--PolarisDiB