Watch The Frogs Who Wanted a King For Free

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

"The Frogs Who Wanted a King" (I won't include the French title because of spell checking) or "Frogland" is a black-and-white silent short film from 1922, so this one is already almost 95 years old and it is not that long anymore until the 100th anniversary. The writer and director of this French production was Wladyslaw Starewicz, a Lithuanian filmmaker, who was among Europe's most successful in the first quarter of the 20th century. And the fact that European animation really was not frequent around that time may be the reason why this work here is still kinda known and appreciated today. I think the looks are pretty solid for early 1920s, but not outstanding either. The story is easy to understand, but does not really offer a lot of depth. It is about a people of frogs that ask their God for a king, but what they get is not exactly to their liking. I feel kinda sorry for the frogs in here. They did not deserve that. All in all, I don't think this 9-minute short film is anything above mediocrity and that'd why I don#t recommend the watch.

Wladyslaw Starewicz was a Russian-born animator living in France who did incredible things using stop-motion. I've seen a couple of these films before and they feature his favorite subjects--insects, frogs and various animals. They are extremely realistic and lifelike and even today are amazing to watch--the quality is simply fantastic.This one stars lots and lots of frogs. They appeal to their god, Jupiter, to give them a king. Why do they need a king, wonders Jupiter--their lives are perfectly fine now. So, to teach them a nasty lesson, he makes an Egret the king and one by one it starts eating its subjects! Then, the frogs once again appeal to Jupiter, who states the obvious moral that it's best to be happy with what you have! While the animation quality is incredible, this is a very creepy film for kids. I would think this would terrify them both by how real the animals look as well as the story itself which is not for the faint of heart!

Frogs Who Wanted a King, The (1923)*** (out of 4) aka Grenouilles qui demandent un roi, Les French puppet/animated short has a group of frogs asking for a King so that they can live better. God sends something down but the frogs begin to ask questions so God seeks revenge. This was a rather interesting little film as it certainly isn't for kids and it does fit the "weird" label where you can find it on countless compilations. This was originally meant as an anti-government thing where the director, having been kicked out of his own country, asks the viewer why would they want their government to step in when you can handle things on your own. The story is told is a rather dark and bleak manor with only light touches of comedy thrown in. I doubt kids of today would enjoy a silent, animated film but if they were to watch this then I'm sure they'd break down into tears.

The Frogs Who Wanted a King or Frogland is Ladislaw Starewicz's most cautionary tale about people wanting government to solve their problems that I've ever seen. The ironic thing is that they pray to the god Jupiter for their answers. Jupiter responds first by sending a tree stump and then a stork. Neither works out and the stork is especially dangerous to the amphibian creatures! The frogs have some human qualities when we see them dress in the latest fashions of the day and we see some take pictures or use a movie camera when the stork arrives! Like I said, this short is very much a political allegory more suitable for adults than children. In fact, I first saw this on the Rhino VHS that had Bambi Meets Godzilla. That alone should tell you what to expect here!