A Little Phantasy on a 19th-century Painting (1946)
Taking "Isle of the Dead," a work by the Swiss symbolist painter Arnold Böcklin as his starting point, Norman McLaren creates a deeply disturbing surrealist dream.
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Norman McLaren was a very prolific Canadian animator who was born in the UK. Most of his films would be described as 'arty' and are pretty much unknown here in the States. However, I've seen several of his films on various DVD collections and I like these sorts of shorts--and was thrilled to see a seven disk set of his work. This particular short is from the first disk."A Little Fantasy" is an interesting and very artistic short. Using a pastel reproduction of a black & white painting called "Isle of the Dead", McLaren manipulates the painting frame by frame to make the picture appear to come to life. I can only think of a few other animators who have used this technique and it's incredible to think of all the time needed to make such a film. I liked it, but really doubt the average viewer would be especially interested.