I recently saw this at the 2007 Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films as part of great program of animated shorts. The tag line of this film says "An extraordinary event will change the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci when he was a boy." The events depicted in this wonderful short are probably not accurate since little is know of the very early years of da Vinci but it makes for a fanciful fable. Here we see da Vinci as a young boy of about 10 as he observes an alchemist in his 15th century laboratory/workroom working on models and sketching ideas for the secrets of perpetual motion. This triggers in the boys own imagination a lifelong interest in machines and mechanical drawings and creating automata. We know da Vinci began as an apprentice to the painter Verroccilio when he was 14 and earned that apprenticeship from his painting skills. There is no indication that he displayed mechanical draftsmen type skills and interests until later in life. It was likely the drawings of the 13th century French artist Villard de Honnecourt that inspired da Vinci in perpetual motion and not an alchemist in Florence but since we know little of da Vinci's years before Verroccilio, maybe there was some such Florentinian. This award winning stylized short is from the Spanish writers/directors Raquel Ajofrin and Enrique Garcia with Rubén Salazar, Jorge Sanchez and the team at Silverspace 3D Animation Studios. Music by Aritz Villodas. I would give this an 8.0 out of 10.
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