The Emperor's Nightingale (1948) review

Puppet film of the Hans Christian Anderson story deserves a lot of credit for Trnka's craft and the elegance of the costumes and scenery (none other than Jean Cocteau was impressed with the Czech director's work) despite a somewhat plodding execution and lack of panache. Will appeal to fans of Starewicz's films and stop motion animation which is sadly being replaced by CGI and massive crews of hundreds of workers - take a look at the credits to Trnka's films and you'll see he handled most of the work himself.