From April to May, the UK is being treated to a retrospective Jiří Trnka’s animation, through a collaboration by the Czech Centre London, the Czech National Film Archive and specialist cinemas in London, Bristol, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Known as ‘The Walt Disney of the East’, Trnka was the father of Czech animation, which really only came into existence after World War II. Although he was initially influenced by Disney’s animated cartoons, it was in puppet animation that Trnka ultimately developed his own style and became influential in his own right. He founded his puppet film studio in the 1940s and his first feature film, The Czech Year (Špalíček, 1947) was immediately successful with both domestic and international audiences.
Typically containing no dialogue, Trnka’s films are easily accessible to viewers young and old, all over the world. Although animation is popularly associated with children’s entertainment, most of Trnka...
Typically containing no dialogue, Trnka’s films are easily accessible to viewers young and old, all over the world. Although animation is popularly associated with children’s entertainment, most of Trnka...
- 4/30/2012
- by Alison Frank
- The Moving Arts Journal
"It would be hard to meet a Czech whose childhood was not touched (perhaps unconsciously) by the art of Jiří Trnka, a painter, puppeteer, illustrator and above all, the founding father of Czech animated film." So begins Ruth Fraňková's 2007 profile for Radio Praha, for which she spoke with several of the innovator's admirers and colleagues. "His poetic drawings brought immortality to books that would otherwise be long forgotten. And his animated films bestowed dozens of puppets and drawings with life."
Trnka was born in Pilsen 100 years ago today and died in 1969 at the age of only 57; to here Fraňková tell it, he more or less worked himself to death. In 2010, Paul Gallagher posted a few clips at Dangerous Minds, adding that, having drawn since he was a child, Trnka "wanted to bring his pictures to life. So, he started making puppets and opened a wooden puppet theatre on Prague's Wenceslas Square.
Trnka was born in Pilsen 100 years ago today and died in 1969 at the age of only 57; to here Fraňková tell it, he more or less worked himself to death. In 2010, Paul Gallagher posted a few clips at Dangerous Minds, adding that, having drawn since he was a child, Trnka "wanted to bring his pictures to life. So, he started making puppets and opened a wooden puppet theatre on Prague's Wenceslas Square.
- 2/24/2012
- MUBI
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