Huh? Yeah, maybe you don't speak Russian, either.
From the page where I found this recommendation "This is one of my favorite vintage holiday films, a strange little gem from the great Russian [his parents were Polish] stop-motion animator Ladislas Starevich." (There are different spellings depending on the country.)
The English title of this "strange little gem" from 1913 is "The Insects' Christmas" and there you have your plot.
The Father Christmas ornament
comes alive and climbs off the tree.
Little break, that was exhausting.
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| Father Christmas has invited some insects - beetles, a grasshopper (although the English intertitle calls her Miss Dragonfly), and a frog (I guess the beetles are too big for him to eat), and now he trims a tree for them. |
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| The ornaments are also gifts and everyone gets one of them. |
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| Fun for everyone - sliding down the snowy hill! |
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| One of the beetles and the frog tussle for the cracker. When it comes apart, they tumble backwards and the frog falls into the hole where he's staying for the winter. |
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| The cloud rising from the cracker spells "Froehliche Weinachten" (no idea why it's in German, also - because I'm a nitpicker - there's an h missing in "Weihnachten") ... "Merry Christmas"! |
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| Father Christmas returns to his tree. |
It's really a delightful little film. Isn't it nice of Father Christmas to get off his tree to give his friends a nice Christmas, too? I don't even want to think about how he got to the forest!
Thank you to Lea for recommending it in "7 Silent Christmas Movies (From the Horse-And-Buggy Era)" on Silent-ology, December 21, 2016!
This does sound delightful, and I love all the images! Thank you so much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by, Linda! 😊
DeleteWhat an enchanting little movie. You have to wonder why they picked insects though I don’t know what it would be. Thanks for finding and sharing all these little gems, Cat!
ReplyDeletehttps://marshainthemiddle.com/
That's easily explained, in fact. Starevich had made documentaries about insects before when he was director of a Museum of Natural History.
DeleteLOL. Your first sentence made me smile, because in deed, that was my reaction ; )))
ReplyDelete😂
DeleteHa! I’d never thought about a Christmas for insects. It’s kind of a weird little movie, but pretty cool too.
ReplyDeleteIt made me think of children's books. I could imagine Ida Bohatta-Morpurgo making one like it for example (I had a post about one of her picture books before). "Strange little gem" describes it very nicely, I think.
DeleteThat certainly does look like a strange little film. Imagine how long that must have taken to make!
ReplyDeleteStop-motion is something that I deeply admire. All that patience!
DeleteThere are animation films about insects, I think one was even followed by a TV show, but I don't know if they ever had a Christmas episode ...
I've never seen insects in a Christmas story before!
ReplyDeleteNeither had I! You never stop learning.
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