STRANGE TOONS: Karel Zeman's INSPIRATION

Settle in nice and warm for Karel Zeman's bittersweet little story about the love that blossoms inside a raindrop on a dark and cold winter's night.

Zeman was a fascinating animator who produced a lot of work that's under-appreciated today, but his 1948 short Inspiration could be his most formally daring and affecting work. He created the short using actual glass figures, heated and bent between each frame to produce the gliding, sliding movements of a graceful ballerina and the little clown who longs for her.

The result is equal parts 3D Fantasia and your grandmother's curio cabinet come to life. It's my understanding that Zeman invented the technique, and so far as I know, nobody ever tried it again.




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