13 used & new from $89.98
See All Buying Options
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
or
Get a $22.50 Amazon.com Gift Card
 
 
The Puppet Films of Jiri Trnka
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images

The Puppet Films of Jiri Trnka (1951)

Starring: Helena Patockova, Jaromir Sobotoa Director: Jirí Trnka, Milos Makovec Rating: NR (Not Rated) Format: DVD
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


5 new from $165.00 8 used from $89.98
Amazon Video On Demand
Amazon Video On Demand Special Offer
Purchase any DVD or Blu-ray and receive $5 towards select TV shows at Amazon Video On Demand. Here's how (restrictions apply).

Special Offers and Product Promotions

  • Save up to 50% on Classic Movies: For a limited time, pick up some timeless cinema favorites and save. Shop now.

  • Save at least 41% on Land of the Lost: For a limited time, pick up Will Ferrell's latest on DVD and Blu-ray. Shop now.

  • DVDs as Low as $5.99, Blu-ray as Low as $16.49. To celebrate the release of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, check out other big movies starring Denzel Washington, John Travolta, and more.

  • Sci-Fi Sale Extravaganza: Over 600 Sci-Fi movies & TV shows are now on sale as part of our Sci-Fi Sale Extravaganza. Sale ends November 23. Shop now.

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Puppet Films of Jiri Trnka
36% buy the item featured on this page:
The Puppet Films of Jiri Trnka 4.0 out of 5 stars (8)
Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers
20% buy
Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers 4.6 out of 5 stars (10)
$29.99
Jiri Barta: Labyrinth of Darkness
16% buy
Jiri Barta: Labyrinth of Darkness 4.7 out of 5 stars (7)
$19.99
Cameraman's Revenge & Other Fantastic Tales
15% buy
Cameraman's Revenge & Other Fantastic Tales 4.8 out of 5 stars (4)
$17.99
Explore similar items

Product Details

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The Czech stop-motion puppet animation master Jiri Trnka directed some of the most acclaimed animated films ever made. In 1966, four years before his death, Newsday lauded him as "second to Chaplin as a film artist because his work inaugurated a new stage in a medium long dominated by Disney." Trnka continues to astound audiences to this day, particularly those discovering this amazing animation for the first time. This collection includes five of the master's shorts and his feature-length classic "The Emperor's Nightingale" based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale and narrated by Boris Karloff. Includes: The Emperor's Nightingale (1951, 67 min.), The Hand (18 min.), The Story of the Bass Cello (13 min.), A Merry Circus (11 min.), A Drop Too Much (14 min.), The Song of the Prairie (21 min.), Jiri Trnka: Puppet Animation Master documentary (12 min.).

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Jiri Barta: Labyrinth of Darkness

Jiri Barta: Labyrinth of Darkness

DVD ~ Oldrich Kaiser
4.7 out of 5 stars (7)  $19.99
The Adventures of Prince Achmed

The Adventures of Prince Achmed

DVD ~ Carl Koch
4.9 out of 5 stars (15)  $17.99
Cameraman's Revenge & Other Fantastic Tales

Cameraman's Revenge & Other Fantastic Tales

DVD ~ Ladislaw Starewicz
4.8 out of 5 stars (4)  $17.99
The Collected Shorts of Jan Svankmajer

The Collected Shorts of Jan Svankmajer

DVD ~ Jan Svankmajer
3.9 out of 5 stars (9)  $24.99
Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers

Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers

DVD ~ Quay Brothers
4.6 out of 5 stars (10)  $29.99
› Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
See all 6 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags
 

Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Master of puppets., May 21, 2000
By Birthe Jrgensen (Odense, Denmark) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
What Harryhausen and Pal are to America, Trnka is to Eastern European stop-motion animation; the Master. This collection includes some of his best work, and these short films now shine like never before on this new gorgeous DVD release. -This almost hypnotic new video format (DVD) seem to have a very positive effect on people in the industry, bringing them to seek the release of many a lost or forgotten treasure. I think the future looks golden, indeed. There's something truly unique about the high art of stop-motion, and personally I feel the older it is, strangely enough the better it is somehow. Also adding to the fun in this case, is hearing the wonderfully voiced Boris Karloff narrate one. Let's hope more Trnka stuff (and puppet trickery in general) is on the way; he and other Czech animators, like Karel Zeman, deserves it.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Worthwhile collection, November 18, 2002
By AMH (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
The Emperor's Nightingale is feature-length (67 minutes). There are also five shorts plus a brief documentry on Trnka. I'm not familiar with Andersen's original, but Trnka's treatment of The Emperor's Nightingale makes it perfect for his medium. First of all, it is a story within a story: a live-action unhappy boy dreams the puppet-animated fairy tale. Then, the dream itself revolves around a real singing nightingale and a mechanical singing nightingale. Having this mixture of live action and puppet animation makes the experience more complex and interesting than reading the story in a children's book. Plus, nowadays, with simulated on-line experience competing with "real" get-out-of-doors experience, the story is even more complex. The Emperor of the title is the boy Emperor of China, and this leads to a nice Czech-filtered Oriental flavor to the art design. The shorts are a mixed bag. Story Of The Bass Cello (1949), from a Chekhov piece, and The Song Of The Prairie (1949), a spoof of Hollywood westerns, have humorous moments but felt too much like 1950s TV children shows. The Merry Circus (1951) is unique: the animation is done entirely with paper cutouts. The colors are very beautiful and reminded me of vintage carnival posters come to life. Then there's A Drop Too Much (1954), which is like the Citizen Kane of animation because of the virtuoso display of narrative technique. There is a stunning sequence of a drunk motorcyclist racing everything on the road during a rainy night. The last short, The Hand (1965), is best enjoyed as a Beckett-like short play, rather than a political allegory.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Charming animation, March 11, 2007
By wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
If ever a man was born to his trade and art, it was Trnka. He grew up helping his grandmother make dolls and his mother with her work as a seamstress. By the time started making his movies, in his 30s, he had utter fluency in all of the manual skill needed for success. For new success, that is, because his career as an artist was already well established by then.

This DVD splits almost evenly into a feature length piece and six shorts. The former, "The Emperor's Nightingale," is a wonderful adaptation of a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. It touches on many things, including the monotony of mechanical perfection compared to the unpredictable beauty of the organic world. Trnka objected to the Soviet regime that controlled the Czech people during most of his adult life. That was the hand that fed him, though, as well as the hand that could crush him. If there's a subtext of rebellion by a living society against a rigid, mechanical system of control, it's written in very small print.

The shorts varied widely in holding my attention. The cartoon adaptation of Chekov's "The Bass Cello" is warm and funny, with a delightful chill in it for anyone who's had a no-pants dream filled with frustration and embarassment. "A Drop Too Much" could possibly have been a public service feature, about a 15 minute sermon on the evils of drinking and driving. It comes across with the complexity and moral tone of one of those "Davey and Goliath" cartoons I never much liked as a kid. "The Merry Circus" is interesting for an innovative animation technique, one with many strengths and weakness relative to normal model making, and "The Song of the Prarie" is a silly satire of the 1950s Western movies - already pretty silly in themselves.

Only "The Hand" really stands out in that set. It's a modern fairy tale about artistic and personal freedom in the face of massive, controlling social power. Small wonder that this piece won awards abroad and suppression in his home country.

The style is a bit dated, and scripting tends towards a meditative pace. There's not a lot here for the ADHD generation, unless they're truly dedicated fans of animation. For us in the middle ground, there's a lot to enjoy, but the world has other things to enjoy in it, too.

//wiredweird
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Jiri Trnka
In my youth, Jiri Trnka was a ground breaker in the world of puppet animation and creative narrative. Read more
Published 21 months ago by George F. Fry

5.0 out of 5 stars The Puppet Films of Jiri Trnka
These unique, priceless animated offerings are perfect for those seeking some good old-fashioned low-tech charm after an overload of computer generated effects. Read more
Published on June 27, 2007 by John Farr

2.0 out of 5 stars emperor and the nightingale
The claymation on this is wonderful but my kids could not stay interested in it.
Published on February 4, 2007 by J. Winegarten

4.0 out of 5 stars Great movie memory from childhood...
This is a review for The Emperor and the Nightingale DVD, mine is a slightly different one. The cover art is the same, but mine contains only the movie plus one short film... Read more
Published on December 1, 2004 by chimera68

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Kid Movie Classic
Boris Karloff (who also narrated in The Grinch Stole Christmas) narrates this Hans Christian Andersen classic about a lonely emperor and the delightful comfort provided by a... Read more
Published on August 31, 2000 by Long Island, East, member

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   

Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)

Look for Similar Items by Category

Look for Similar Items by Subject

Search Movies & TV by subject:











i.e., each DVD must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...
 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.



Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.