A Little Phantasy on a Nineteenth Century Painting

A unique idea to take a painting and add animation to it. The problem for me was that the artist didn't go far enough. It's as if there were a lot of potential that, with a bit more effort, could have been realized in a more substantial way. It still is a delight to watch and interpret.

Arnold Böcklin (1827 - 1901) was a Romantic painter who liked to tackle the great themes : life, fertility, death, oblivion and resurrection. Much of his work is marvellously mysterious or evocative. He painted the Isle of the Dead - in fact he liked the subject so much that he painted various versions.

What you've got here is a little animation short which is a meditation on one of his "Isles". It's nice to watch and it shows respect for the source material, which is always a plus. However, it doesn't add much in the way of new angles or fresh insights. Viewers wanting to study the work, can look just as well at a good reproduction.

If you're looking for a different take on the "Isle of the Dead" theme I can recommend Roger Zelazny's novel, about a human with near-godlike powers who is forced to confront both his past and the frailty of life. It's a cracking piece of fantasy / science fiction.

Norman McLaren was a very prolific Canadian animator who was born in the UK. Most of his films would be described as 'arty' and are pretty much unknown here in the States. However, I've seen several of his films on various DVD collections and I like these sorts of shorts--and was thrilled to see a seven disk set of his work. This particular short is from the first disk.

"A Little Fantasy" is an interesting and very artistic short. Using a pastel reproduction of a black & white painting called "Isle of the Dead", McLaren manipulates the painting frame by frame to make the picture appear to come to life. I can only think of a few other animators who have used this technique and it's incredible to think of all the time needed to make such a film. I liked it, but really doubt the average viewer would be especially interested.