"The Chimney Sweep" (also known as "The Spring Man and the SS" is one of the most unusual cartoons I have ever seen and because of this, it's hard to give a rating to this one. It is worth seeing but it's certainly not the sort of thing most folks today would enjoy.
The film is a Czechoslovakian anti-Nazi occupation cartoon that came out just after WWII. While the story claims it might be true, it clearly isn't! The film begins with a horrid little collaborator spying on all his neighbors and reporting them to the SS. The folks who were arrested are marched past where a chimney sweep is working and he comes up with an odd idea--to put springs on his feet so he can sneak into the prison and liberate these people. And, using cartoon physics, he bounces all over the place--and destroying the Nazis everywhere. And, in the end, he's won the admiration of his countrymen.
"The Chimney Sweep" using VERY simple animation and is in black & white--so aesthetically speaking, it's not a lovely film. But, it manages to do a lot with this--looking very artsy and unique. I assume that color wasn't used simply because Europe was a mess after the war and color film stock was either not available or too prohibitively expensive. Still, it's a cute little cartoon--mostly for older film viewers, history buffs and the like. Odd but worth seeing. And, if you'd like, you can download it for free at archive.org.
