Riddles for a Candy

I guess that sometimes in their professional lives animators consider the possibility of making products for children. It is one of the most common uses given to the art of animating anything, from the human figure to strokes of paint applied to plain celluloid, though it most often animates mermaids, mice, rabbits, frogs, ducks, fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Jiri Barta also did, and the result is perhaps too weird for a kid... But who knows? Cultures are different and children from some places react differently than those from somewhere else. In any case, take an entity which is a mixture of a human, a rooster, a dog, several mosquitoes, a seashell and an anteater, make him crave for a bonbon, and test him with riddles he has to solve first in order to win the candy and eat it, and you have Barta's debut. And a fine, funny debut it is, to be just to his effort. If it is enjoyable to everybody, who knows, but it does not matter much anyway.

Czech animator Jiří Barta made his debut with the oddball "Hádanky za bonbón" ("Riddles for a Candy" in English). Unlike his later movies, this one contains dialog, most of which is the main character's repeating animal-themed riddles in a small book, while shapes keep changing. I prefer Barta's more avant garde movies. Since this is Barta's debut, we can forgive it for being less interesting than his other work. Still, the movie isn't terrible. I liked seeing all the shapes that they came up with. I wasn't sure what the point of the candy itself was.

So, this is mainly worth seeing because it was Barta's debut. His later work is neater.