International Competition of Animated Feature Films for children
Lotte and the Moonstone Secret
Lotte and the Moonstone Secret
Janno Põldma, Heiki Ernits | Estonia | 2011 | 76 min
One night two strangers creep into Gadgetville, searching for a suitcase belonging to the old traveller dog Klaus. Girl puppy Lotte surprises the strangers who become frightened and flee, dropping the yellow stone they had taken from the suitcase. Klaus found the stone on his last journey in the mountains. Actually there were three stones; the other two were left to Klaus’s friends, the dogs Fred and Ville. Lotte discovers that this is not an ordinary stone. There is a complicated mechanism inside it. Klaus and Lotte decide to find Fred and Ville in order to get the other two stones and solve the mystery. Two strangers follow them. Soon there is another competitor interested in the stones – Paul the Cat. Lotte soon realises that this is much more serious than an ordinary exiting adventure.
The Great Bear
The Great Bear
Esben Toft Jacobsen | Denmark | 2011 | 73 min
Jonathan and his little sister Sophie are on holiday at they grandfather‘s cabin deep in the forest. Jonathan tries to get rid of Sophie, but when he finally succeeds, it‘s in a way Jonathan would never have imagined.
Sophie has been kidnapped by a huge bear, and now he has to somehow find her and get her back home. In the course of their journey the two are mixed up in an epic battle between a hunter dwelling the forest and the great bear. But before Jonathan and Sophie can save themselves, the forest and the bear from an evil fate, they have to accept each other as brother and sister.
Legends of Valhalla - Thor
Legends of Valhalla – Thor
Óskar Jònasson | Island | 2011 | 85 min
The young blacksmith Thor lives happily with his single mother in a peaceful little village. The legend says he is the son of Odin, the King of the Gods. Thor dreams of greatness – honour, respect and everlasting fame and his true heroes are the warriors that go to Valhalla when killed in battles. By sheer accident – or perhaps by fate – the most
powerful weapon in the world, the hammer Crusher, ends up in the hands of Thor. Because of the legend of Thor being the son of Odin, the villagers believe that the terrifying giants will never attack them. But they are awfully mistaken. An army of giants crushes the village and among others, they kidnap Thor’s good friend Edda. He sets out to save his friend with the hammer Crusher.
Tales of the Night
Tales of the Night
Michel Ocelot | France | 2011 | 84 min
Every night, a girl, a boy and an elderly technician meet in a little cinema that seems abandoned, but is in fact full of wonders. The three friends research, draw, invent, dress up and act out the stories that take their fancy in a magical night where anything is possible – sorcerers and fairies, powerful kings and stable boys, werewolves and merciless ladies, cathedrals and straw huts, cities of gold and deep forests, the waves of harmony of choirs immense and the spells of a single tom-tom, malice that ravages and innocence that triumphs…
The Painting
The Painting
Jean-François Laguionie | France, Belgium | 2011 | 76 min
At the time the story begins, a rumour has been spreading like wildefire through the Picture: It is reported that “the Painter will never come back.” For the Alldunns, this is the best news of all. They decide to seize power and bring order to the Castle… The main plot of the film is a quest that is set in motion when a Halfie girl and an Alldun‘s forbidden love is used for a power play. Escalating violence in the society leads several characters in and out of other paintings and also the real world in search for the Painter to ask him to finish his work, to thereby bring peace to their troubled world. The story is rich and complex: there’s an allegory of intolerance, also the mystery, as well as an idea of growing as an individual.