I've seen several other shorts by the Russian-born Wladyslaw Starewicz. After fleeing the country during the Revolution, he ended up in France where he made a bunch of really well made stop-motion films. Oddly, while he was very talented and came well before Willis O'Brien, Ray Harryhausen and Jan Svankmajer--all who are much more famous for this work today--even though Starewicz was (in my opinion) better and did his work decades before them. It's sad as he rarely gets notice. Perhaps his films just need to be made more widely available. Of course, the same could also be said for the wonderful stop-motion comic, Charley Bowers.
The film begins with a lady sewing together a child's stuffed dog toy. The dog comes to life and hears the lady's young daughter ask for an orange--something the poor family cannot apparently afford. So, the sweet toy decides to go looking for an orange for the girl--and soon meets up with LOTS of very creepy stop-motion characters--including some demons! Well, the faithful dog doesn't give up and ultimately returns home to the child...with an orange.
While the story is very simple and creepy, you can't help but admire the quality of the animation--it's top-notch throughout. The only negative other than the creepiness of some of the characters (making it not a good choice for young kids) is the dubbing of the child's voice--it sounds weird and unnatural--like an adult trying to sound like a kid. Still, there's a lot to admire in this short--an awful lot. And, by the way, the film is a bit like "Nightmare Before Christmas" in style, believe it or not.
The film begins with a lady sewing together a child's stuffed dog toy. The dog comes to life and hears the lady's young daughter ask for an orange--something the poor family cannot apparently afford. So, the sweet toy decides to go looking for an orange for the girl--and soon meets up with LOTS of very creepy stop-motion characters--including some demons! Well, the faithful dog doesn't give up and ultimately returns home to the child...with an orange.
While the story is very simple and creepy, you can't help but admire the quality of the animation--it's top-notch throughout. The only negative other than the creepiness of some of the characters (making it not a good choice for young kids) is the dubbing of the child's voice--it sounds weird and unnatural--like an adult trying to sound like a kid. Still, there's a lot to admire in this short--an awful lot. And, by the way, the film is a bit like "Nightmare Before Christmas" in style, believe it or not.