Der König und der Vogel

I saw this movie only once in a cinema, as a child, shortly after it was released. I still remembered scenes and bits of it more than 20 years later! I recall feeling particularly moved by the poor people kept captive underground, which evidences that children's stories must not necessarily be devoid of suffering and injustice. On the contrary: this kind of plot may feed children's sense of indignation and thus ultimately contribute to a better world.

This film is one of those rare pieces of art that are a true explosion of fantasy that will capture a child's imagination completely, combined with an underlying message that will also fascinate adults.

I bought the superbly produced "Édition Collector 2 DVD" set (Zone 2) through Amazon France about a year ago and it has become one of the favorite movies of my 5-year-old son, too, although neither of us speaks a word of French...

I saw this film when I was a child and it mesmerized me. I saw it recently and my fascination for this film hasn't declined. This film is a marvel. Among its particularities that are quite numerous, let's quote: the beauty of the landscapes , the harmony of the colors, the perfection of music and especially the irony of the dialogues which is not surprising as they were written by Jacques Prévert. Moreover, in this film (which was awarded by the "Louis Delluc" price in 1979 and it deserved it), Paul Grimault's goal is to show us his hatred of the tyranny and his defence in favour of the poor and the weak. The film shows a great contrast concerning this thema: the king and his court lives in modernity, in the light and in gigantic palace whereas the population lives in darkness, in obscurity and in poverty. As a conclusion sentence: a wonderful animation film which is much better than any Disney films

The poetry of Jacques Prevert's text associated with the poetry of Paul Grimault's drawing renders a unique piece of cartooning associating emotions and laughters in a rare way. It would be easy to sum up the story, but it would be like summing up a poem, it'd be a crime. Let's just say it is the story about the king V and three makes 8 and 8 makes 16.

I was reminded of this film recently and it instantly became an obsession for me to find the English dubbed copy that I remember as a child. Finally got my hands on a copy and wow this movie is better than anything I ever saw while I was young! Sometimes you go back and watch something you loved as a child and realize how terrible it was but this film sent chills through my body, each scene playing through exactly as I remembered it in perfect detail. Anyone who saw this as a child will know what I'm talking about. The level of nostalgia that comes with this fantastic animation is above anything any other film has ever had for myself. The music is absolutely epic, beautifully written and goes with the movie perfectly. The level of storytelling that this film does is amazing despite the small amount of dialogue. Truly a classic, it is unfortunate that this film is so rare to find, especially in English. If anyone is interested please contact me.

I saw The King and the Bird ~25 years ago in the Soviet Union, professionally translated and dubbed. The movie, ironically, fits very well the Soviet ideology (the poor get explored by the rich, the rich living in sky-scraper-like palaces etc). Apparently the movie is not available in the US with English subtitles. The movie fascinated me as a ~7 year old, but also disturbed me quite profoundly. After I watched it again in 2010 I have realized that I remember ~50% of the movie quite literally 25 years later. Some scenes still don't make sense to me, just like the didn't back in the early 80s, e.g. the king from the painting getting rid of the real king 15 min into the movie and taking over the rest of the show. Some parts of the story and some scenes in the animation itself could have more attention to detail, they stand out. E.g. the lion scene is showing very abstract lions; and later I learned that the scene was added ~30 years later.