Jannik Hastrup is a living legend of animation; in fact, they call him “the European wizard”.
He
was born in Denmark in 1941 and started
his career as a jazz musician. For a while he also
experimented with ceramics. When he turned to cinema, he dedicated himself exclusively to
animation, directing many films and teaching his craft in a number of universities. During the
’60s and the ’70s he
directed and produced some 60 short films, but since the ’80s he focuses
mainly in feature length productions.
Jannik Hastrup has created his own “school” of European animation: Trademarks of his work
are his original drawings in vibrant colours and the s
assy characters he creates. But there’s
another reason for which his work is immediately recognisable: As we
can see in the six
films
that form this tribute, while his subject matters are always of high intellect, he has a way of
communicating them so that
young children can both grasp their essence and also enjoy them.
In a den in the fells, a polar bear gives birth to a cub –but the cub is stillborn. In a cabin some way off, a woman gives birth to a strong, healthy boy. The polar bear is so grief-stricken at the loss of her cub that she lies down on the ice to die, […]
The minibeetle Mini appears in a flea circus together with Egon and Dagmar. The flea-girl Miranda bullies Mini and tricks him into interfering in Dagmar’s line dancing so she falls and sprains her foot. Deeply ashamed, Mini runs away and joins a gang of robbers. […]
One day a little girl of color hops off a cocoa box into Cirkeline’s world. Her name is Coco and she looks exactly like Circleen -only she has black skin, curly hair and wears a crown. She is a princess, and she tells Cirkeline that she comes from the country where chocolate grows on the […]
Dagmar the dancing mosquito is in love with Egon. But Egon, putting love on hold, is always busy with hisbike and wants to see the world. When wicked red ant queen Dominella and her soldiers kill the black ant queen and take over her heap, our heroes are drawn into an exciting forest adventure that […]
Cirkeline goes on holiday to Turkey with her artist. Not wanting to stay at home, her little friends, the mice Ingolf, Frederik and Viktor decide to follow her. The mice secret themselves onto grandfather’s ship which is heading south. On board they meet another stowaway, a very bright and fearless little mouse named Ali, who […]
The city, its dangers and wild surprises, becomes once more the stage for a story with Cirkeline, the little elf, and her funny mouse friends Ingolf and Fredrik, who live under the flower pots at the artist’s balcony. The idyllic lives of Cirkeline and her mouse pals are interrupted when they meet the short-sighted Cindermouse, […]