Well, well, here's a lovely surprise. When I first caught wind of a new DVD anthology of early work by animator Michel Ocelot I promptly scooped it up mostly just to get a look at how the master's visual style had developed over the years but also hoping that my limited French would be enough to give me at least a rough idea of what was going on as far as narrative and story. But, happy day, when the disc turned up in the mail it turned out that despite it not being advertised or listed as such this is a fully English friendly release with subtitles offered not only on the animations but also on the extensive selection of making-of interviews in which Ocelot describes the creation of each and every one of the films included. So dust off those credit cards, animation fans, this one's a must. So, what do you get? Nine selections, one of which is actually composed of thirteen five minute episodes prepared for French television.
Up first is Les 3 Inventeurs, Ocelot's first film in which he had full control and the most technically impressive piece in the collection. The film is made using a complicated system of folded paper and cut outs, a system that Ocelot would greatly simplify in ensuing years but here is lush and ornate, filled with surprising depth and texture and layers of activity that must have been hugely labor intensive to create.
Up next is La Legende Du Pauvre Bossu, a film so diametrically opposed to Ocelot's previous effort that it contains scarcely any animation at all, which didn't stop it from winning the man a Cesar award. This one aims to capture the feel of medieval woodcut techniques through a series of still images linked together to tell a deceptively simple story.
Then there is La Princesse Insensible, the aforementioned television project. A series of five minute episodes telling the story of a series of princes attempting to entertain a terminally bored princess, this series will leave fans of Ocelot's Princes and Princesses sitting at attention as they recognize the first experimentation with the format and techniques that would mark that feature effort.
Next are four shorts taken from Ocelot's 1989 television effort Cine Si, films that both in story telling format and the cut-out, shadow puppet inspired animation style are, like the previous entry, obvious precursors to Princes and Princesses.
But animators seldom can pay their bills doing nothing but narrative work and Ocelot is no exception to that rule. An example? The included music video he prepared for Bjork's Earth Intruders.
And finally, there is Ocelot's quasi sequel to Azur and Asmar, a roughed out series of sketches prepared by Ocelot and the film crew based on a story sent to them by school children in the Middle East.
If all the disc included were these early works it would be more than worth the cost purely for the opportunity to get a look at what came before Kirikou and Azur and Asmar but this gives considerably more than that, with a series of detailed interviews in which Ocelot describes his working conditions and approach to each and every one of the included films. Put these together with the included shorts and you get an intimate look at what makes this particular master tick.