You can probably count on one hand, maybe on one finger, the number of animation directors who made their first film with the help of mental patients while working at a psychiatric institute.
This describes Frenchman René Laloux.
Some years later, he and writer/designer Roland Topor created the feature film Fantastic Planet (1973), a special award winner at the Cannes Film Festival.
The two of them toiled together earlier on an animated short film called Les Escargots (1965). It also won several awards in Europe.
“Surreal” may be the best way to describe it. It’s about as far removed from any studio cartoon in North America at the time. No one will mistake this for Honey Halfwitch or Daffy and Speedy.
Laloux died in 2004.
This can also be found in a few Public Domain collections (I have one, along with a few other French shorts like Paul Grimault's and 1920s 'The Voice of the Nightingale'). I can only imagine how families would have reacted to this. I got a kick out of this as far as I remembered.
ReplyDelete