Toys in the Attic: a bipolar world inhabited by dolls

The animation is sometimes a complex system that collects different techniques superimposed on the same footage. And a perfect example of this is Toys in the Attic (Toys in the attic), the new project of Czech Jiri Barta, combining stop-motion, hand drawn and filmed images. In fact, these characters are sometimes drawn volume in 2D. The trailer shows signs of this fascinating mix of textures, which allows the creation of a self-sufficient world, antimimético, detached from the imitation of reality:

Toys in the Attic is a kind of Toy Story communist emerged in a context where the toys are old, damaged, broken, stained, but should be reused in the absence of money and exclusion from the rampant consumerism that stains the American culture. Is claimed, thus, a more durable treatment with objects: it is not necessary fast replacement. It can be seen as an ironic response to the USSR had made ​​in the eighties, if Toy Story had occurred in that decade. And is that the argument is inherent in the Cold War in the attic, there are two totally contrasting spaces. On the one hand, the eastern diabolical, where the most tattered dolls and evil, on the other hand, the western part of happiness, where living conditions are better and the dolls are more optimistic. And a man takes the role of the rigid Communist police.

Toys in the Attic brings together leading figures of European culture embodied in the dolls, among which are a Don Quixote who speaks in verse and imagine a knight killing a dragon, a Schubert with a bottle-shaped hat, recalling its drinking habits or Mr. Handsome, a traditional Czech puppet. Thus, the dolls represent cultural symbols that germinated in space, so Toys in the Attic seeks a radical departure from American culture, becoming distant from the American archetypes that cross Toy Story.

In addition, Jiri Barta attempts to reconcile the imaginative character animation with realistic scenes and includes a dimension that is sometimes excised from the genre of animation: time. The dolls are not invariant, as many characters in animated films. Here the dolls grow old, tired and head for the apathy and neglect. In addition, the puppets develop a human-like memory, with a past that determines their behavior and lets them make a dent, and a world of meaning created by their own community, so alien to humans.

In short, Barta proposes to construct a world of dolls completely autonomous, with the inherent complexity of human beings but own habits. Man is like God in the theistic religions: if pantheism, God created the world and then the world revolves independently under the laws of causality, in Toys in the Attic the man creates the doll and breathes the first move, but then it creates its own system of life.

Jiri Barta is one of the contemporary leaders who continue the long tradition of the Czech Republic in the world of animation. And very important is the creator Jan Svankmajer, powerfully influencing Jiri Barta because both use the technique of stop-motion puppets using. Jiri Barta made some important works in stop-motion in the eighties, but after the fall of the regime was run 15 years without new projects. In 2007, Cook released, Mug, Cook!, And in September this year will be screened in U.S. theaters, this highly anticipated project inhabited by dolls.

Photos: You Toons