A wonderful Czech puppet animated adult film based in some stories by Czech actor and writer Jana Wericha (Jan Werich in English), and directed by Vlasta Pospísilová and Aurel Klimt. The film is a collection of 5 short tales: When the Leaves Fall from the Oak, Fearless Frankie, Mean Barka, A Dream Fulfilled, and Fimfárum.
The movie is a reflection of the mastery of Czech people in the use of marionettes, to give life and expression to inexpressive pieces of wood. The animation is also mixed with paper-cut figure animation. I found the little towns, villages and landscapes wonderfully created and imagined, with hints of Mediterranean culture, bucolism, and artistic drawing. It is amazing that, despite the movement of the puppets being so limited in facial expression and movement, the viewer soon forgets about the fact that they don't move their lips when they talk. as the stories are so captivating and interesting that make do for the rest.
This is traditional storytelling with a narrator voice dominating the screen, in this case Waricha himself, the stories linked by real images of Waricha and his big belly commenting on them,. The tales are as the old fables used to be, with a great understanding of human nature and social vices. Being so, the stories have a "moral" , but they are modern stories, naughty, irreverent, funny, sweet, and the moral will surprise you. I usually hate a narrator voice over telling a story, but Waricha is really good as he does so with respect for the viewers without treating us as morons. After all the stories are not for just children, or at least without supervision, as they have many adult elements: alcoholism, greediness, meanness, amorality, cheating, hell, etc. I loved all the stories, although the second one is the only one I thought belonged to another league and the least interesting.
The only flaw of the movie, to me, is that the animation of the characters is clumsy and sluggish, which somewhat depreciates the brilliance of the stories in the tales. However, the animation is also unique and imaginative, and the animators have done a super-job with the material they had.
Finfarum is a jewel of animation, an another proof that you don't need CGI to produce an engaging, en entertaining good quality animation movie.
