Animation for Adults
A selection drawn from the rich and varied history of animation, with an eye to works for general audiences that push their stories and design into bravura realms. This month’s spotlight falls upon two feature-length films by Marcell Jankovics—a purveyor of trippily colorful folk tales who was Hungary’s best-known animator.
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Knit's Island
Directed by Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse, and Quentin L’Helgouac’h | 97 mins | 2023
Filmed entirely within a post-apocalyptic online game, this pioneering documentary visits with zombie-hunting players to ask them about their life philosophies. The conversations are alternately profound, silly, ... -
Son of the White Mare
Directed by Marcell Jankovics | 86 mins | 1981
Spun from a wild Hungarian folk tale, Jankovics’s recently restored feature plays out the epic journey into the underworld undertaken by three heroes named Treeshaker, Stonecrumbler, and Irontemperer. A glowing, full spectrum of color and free interm... -
János Vitéz
Directed by Marcell Jankovics | 78 mins | 1973
An exiled shepherd roams the earth, longing for his lover and seeking his fortune, in this Yellow Submarine-esque cavalcade of color and adventure. Produced as a 150th-anniversary tribute to Hungary’s national poet Sandor Petofi, the lyrical story is... -
Alois Nebel
Directed by Tomás Lunák | 97 mins | 2011
Based on the trilogy of Czech graphic novels by Jaroslav Rudis and Jaromir 99, this black-and-white rotoscoped animation (of live-action footage) follows a train dispatcher tormented by his past. Set in 1989 when Communism ended in the soon-to-be-former Cz... -
Have a Nice Day
Directed by Liu Jian | 77 mins | 2017
Liu’s second animated feature follows a construction worker who decides one day to double-cross his boss and make off with a large amount of contraband cash intended to fix his fiancée’s botched plastic surgery, initiating a down-the-rabbit-hole chase that le...
