The Magic Box

A middle-aged woman who lives alone in her childhood home has become such a daydreamer that the line between fantasy and reality has become blurred. Her thoughts revolve around the war years, when her father was a Nazi and she married the wrong man, even though a sympathetic German soldier loved her. When a young man comes to read the electricity meter, she cannot distinguish between past and present, and the clash between dream and reality becomes painful.

A silhouette animation anthology TV series conceived, written and directed by Michel Ocelot and realised at La Fabrique, consisting of short fantastical stories performed by the same animated "actors." A critical success but commercial failure at the time, no further episodes were commissioned beyond the initial 8, but, following the success of Ocelot's Kirikou and the Sorceress, 6 were edited into the 2000 feature Princes and Princesses, in which form they finally saw wide exposure and acclaim both in France and internationally; a further episode was included in a home release of short works in 2008, but one remains unavailable for public consumption.

In this episodic animated fantasy from France, an art teacher interprets a series of six fairy tales (each involving a prince or princess) with the help of two precocious students. Princes and Princesses was created using a special style of cutout animation, with black silhouetted characters performing the action against backlit backdrops in striking colors.

The story of the young student Nils Klim and his journey to the strange planet Nazar and meeting the people who live there.