'The Emperor and the Nightingale' is a lovely story, if not one of my favourites. Other Hans Christian Andersen stories have connected with me more, 'The Ugly Duckling' for example is very relatable for anybody who found and/or still finds it difficult to fit in. While 'The Emperor and the Nightingale's' story is quite slight it is charming and quite moving in the latter stages and it lends itself well to animation. Have seen my fair share of Czech films and many are worth watching.
Jiri Trnka's 'The Emperor's Nightingale' was my introduction to his work and is one of his best known. Perhaps even his best known. Having seen some of his other films, with a standout being 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (review to come shortly), being someone who has seen some note-worthy Czech films and who loves stop motion/puppet animation, Trnka is definitely someone whose work is worth checking out. There are better films of his than 'The Emperor's Nightingale', to me it is actually a lesser effort of his, but on the most part it's a lovely film.
What immediately stands out is the way 'The Emperor's Nightingale' looks, especially the astonishing photography. The scenery enchants in colour and atmosphere and the way the characters look and move is beautifully detailed and not stiff or too complicated. Particularly the nightingale. The music has presence but is not bombastic, and it doesn't feature too much or feel too discordant with the simple atmosphere.
Furthermore, the writing tells the story simply yet honestly in a way that's not hard to understand. The story is a long way from perfect in execution, but has a good deal of charm, a surprising surrealistic atmosphere at times and it is moving later on. Both titular characters are believably characterised and rootable, neither lacking personality and the nightingale is quite cute. Boris Karloff's narration is typically eloquent and authoritative.
However, do have to agree that the pacing is too creaky and slow. The original story is just too slight to lend itself to an hour and a quarter and it would have been better as a 30 minute short film. While the emotional impact of the story is still there the pacing could have been more tighter.
Something that could have been achieved if there was less of a reliance on the narration. Although delivered beautifully and with no complaints, one could very rarely go wrong with Karloff, it did feel that some of it was padding the length out. The middle act in particular is over-stretched.
Definitely worth watching but falls short of greatness. 7/10.
