El rey y el pájaro

The poetry of Jacques Prevert's text associated with the poetry of Paul Grimault's drawing renders a unique piece of cartooning associating emotions and laughters in a rare way. It would be easy to sum up the story, but it would be like summing up a poem, it'd be a crime. Let's just say it is the story about the king V and three makes 8 and 8 makes 16.

I saw The King and the Bird ~25 years ago in the Soviet Union, professionally translated and dubbed. The movie, ironically, fits very well the Soviet ideology (the poor get explored by the rich, the rich living in sky-scraper-like palaces etc). Apparently the movie is not available in the US with English subtitles. The movie fascinated me as a ~7 year old, but also disturbed me quite profoundly. After I watched it again in 2010 I have realized that I remember ~50% of the movie quite literally 25 years later. Some scenes still don't make sense to me, just like the didn't back in the early 80s, e.g. the king from the painting getting rid of the real king 15 min into the movie and taking over the rest of the show. Some parts of the story and some scenes in the animation itself could have more attention to detail, they stand out. E.g. the lion scene is showing very abstract lions; and later I learned that the scene was added ~30 years later.

The King and Mr Bird, as it was known in England makes most Disney output seem poor in comparison. It is actually stitched together using an old forties (I think) animation called "The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep" and modern footage.

It is the modern stuff which gives it the edge as we are whisked through the Kingdom of Tachycardia, a futuristic city run by a vain king. Mr Bird is a symbol of freedom who brings anarchy to the kingdom.

Best bits. All of it but the ride in the lift is recommended as well as the scenes with the giant robot.

I remember this movie in almost every scene in my head. The version I had was in English and was of course translated to "The King And The Bird." I watched it tirelessly as a child after my mom picked up the tape from somewhere. I could even repeat the bird's soliloquy at the beginning off by heart. The animation and the story are both excellent. I think it's one of the finest pieces of animation ever created. Sadly my tape of this great movie went missing years ago. If anyone knows where I may find another copy, preferably the English version but the French or German version will do despite my lack of understanding of the two languages, I would greatly appreciate it. Seems that this is quite an obscure title and very hard to find despite its winning the Dullec prize in the 80s when it came out.

-Sam

I heard about this movie because it was listed on The thief and the cobbler's wikipedia page as another movie which took a long time to make. The story behind this movie is very interesting and I find it very touching the Paul Grimault managed to complete his vision (unlike Richard Williams). The soundtrack was incredible and fit the scenes perfectly, but the sound effects are a bit lacking (but just in a few scenes). The only complaint I have with this movie is the animation. The scenes were animated decades apart, and this is a problem because the styles do not go together well, because the older animation is leagues better than the new one. That being said I can ignore this problem because even in the new animation the backgrounds are very beautiful. The dialog is also very creative, feeling more like poetry than actual dialog (this should not surprise anyone because it was all written by Jaques Prèvert) I recommend this movie to everyone