Between dream and reality: on children's stories

I remember myself as a kid watching Disney’s masterpiece "Fantasia" over and over again, often skipping the orchestra parts, I must admit, but never having enough of dancing mushrooms and mute mythical creatures. I've watched it as an adult too and found different meanings. For this movie, animators were asked to interpret music under a visual eye and create images based on given tracks.

From the beginning of its development, Disney expressed the greater importance of music in Fantasia compared to his past work: "In our ordinary stuff, our music is always under action, but on this...we're supposed to be picturing this music - not the music fitting our story. [...] Action controlled by a musical pattern has great charm in the realm of unreality".

The realm of unreality

The fascinating, seamless motion of drawn images, the capability the film has to let you sail to another world, leaving you with this mixed feeling of never wanting to come back. What a marvellous talent is to be able to tell stories through moving images! However, visually speaking, there's always this gap between what the mind is capable of imagining and what the hand is able to replicate. At least this is what I feel.

Visual art, for me, is what tries to fill that gap.

I don't know if Gints Zilbalodis imagined what he ended up creating with "Flow," or if the animated movie (which won multiple awards at the Annecy Film Festival and was part of the Official Selection at Festival de Cannes this year) came to life through an intricate and sometimes unexpected process. As all creative outcomes do, after all. What is certain is that the director (along with the entire animation studio) is extremely talented. And I’m really curious to watch his new film and be captivated by the silent, musical, visual, and poetic way it must have of speaking to our souls.

Animated poetry

It is perhaps the poetic, imaginative, and infantile side of animated movies that makes us love them so much. On this note, it's worth mentioning one of the last short films I watched: "On the Wing," by Vera Myakisheva and Yulia Aronova, as part of the collection "Des trésors plein ma poche", distributed in France by Folimage.

The short film explores the life of a family of chickens, focusing on one little chick who stands out as controversial and atypical among her siblings due to her vivid curiosity and ambition: she wants to learn how to fly. If you ask me, both qualities are worth exploring and encouraging in a young child, and I was happy to find this animated film doing so in just 6 minutes. Additionally, I found it very poetic, leaving me with the desire to watch it again.

Moral? No, thank you.

Not all children's stories, whether they’re illustrated with static or animated images, or not illustrated at all actually, have to give a moral lesson. They might also just entertain, make children have fun, help them discover a new way to see the world, or simply let them question characters' behavior. Mac Barnett perfectly summarizes this concept in his latest book, "The secret door. On why children's book are something really serious" edited by Terre di Mezzo. Surprisingly, the book was first published in Italian despite being written by an American author. If you speak the language and are into children's book stories, I highly recommend it. The English version should not be long in coming.

Animated films and children's stories hold a truly unique charm. They are timeless artworks that continue to speak to our souls, telling the same story from different angles each time we watch them, encouraging us to cherish the wonder and curiosity of life, no matter our age. And speaking of languages, if you are familiar with French, give a listen to this audio tale wonderfully narrated by Emmi Kaltcheva and produced by ARB Music. You will be invited to leave the real world and experience the dream, enjoying the magic of storytelling, artistic expression at its finest, and the joy of seeing the world through a child’s eyes.

With an unexpected, more than fair, one-sided happy ending.

Happy listening, happy watching, and happy dreaming.

I hope you found these considerations interesting. If so, don't hesitate to join the conversation and express yourself with a comment below the article. You may also find me on Mastodon, and on the other places we all know.

Thanks for sticking around!
Simona