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Good movie but grossly overrated

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Czechoslovak animator Karel Zeman made his directorial debut with "Vánoční sen" ("A Christmas Dream" in English), which he co-directed with his brother Bořivoj. The version that I saw had dialogue and scenes of Santa Claus, and I understand the original Czech version had neither.* The movie itself has kind of a bland plot, as a girl dreams that her rag doll comes to life and puts on a show. The stop motion animation is impressive, but that's really the only reason to watch this. Nonetheless, I do hope to see more of Karel Zeman's work.*Similarly, the original Japanese release of "Godzilla" didn't feature Raymond Burr's character.

Just watched on YouTube as linked from Matinée at the Bijou this vintage live action/puppet animation short from the Czech Republic called A Christmas Dream here in the U.S. A little girl throws away her old rag doll after getting some new presents. Santa appears to get the girl dreaming about her old doll dancing, playing the piano, sliding on it, and getting a large fan to create a strong gust wind that threatens to create havoc but the girl and the doll manages to put a stop to that. Seeing the doll and a few other toys come to life is the charm of this short especially when the live action girl reacts most enthusiastically. The directors were the brother (I think) team of Karel and Borivoj Zeman. They seemed to be channeling George Pal when making this. So with all that in mind, I highly recommend A Christmas Dream or as it's known in its native language, Vanocni sen.

This short animation is one of the most beautiful animated movies on a theme of Christmas. It is a black and white film which combines animation and actor playing (there is one child actress). In the movie there are very precious kinetic scenes: old puppet is dancing on the piano (on the bars and on the board, it is playing with ventilator that makes the room a dramatic space of a strong windstorm etc.). Animator of this movie was Karel Zeman, the master of Czech animation. The music is lyrical and has a magic of Christmas poetry.The story is nice. After little girl had obtained new toys, she throw her old puppet down. Later she went to bed and got a strange dream. The puppet (it's a simple figure) revives and starts to walk, dance and smile. Girl awakes and feel happy because this is incredible sight. She returns to old puppet.