This short was nominated for an Academy Award. There will be spoilers:
The animation is set to Rossini's "The Thieving Magpie" overture. The basic premise of the animation is that a royal hunting party is firing arrows at birds and is at first quite successful, until a passing magpie is disturbed.
The hunting party is effectively destroyed by one magpie, which they are totally unable to stop from doing anything it wishes. The hunting party is helpless to prevent the bird from stealing a crown, various other caps, hats, whatever. In trying to stop the bird, they wind up hitting each other as the bird taunts them.
The bird even starts a flood and reduces the size of the hunting party to three rather bedraggled looking souls who make it home-only to find they've brought their misfortune with them. The magpie, with some help, teaches them a very expensive lesson.
Nice, if rather crude, drawings and animation make this worth watching. Recommended.
The animation is set to Rossini's "The Thieving Magpie" overture. The basic premise of the animation is that a royal hunting party is firing arrows at birds and is at first quite successful, until a passing magpie is disturbed.
The hunting party is effectively destroyed by one magpie, which they are totally unable to stop from doing anything it wishes. The hunting party is helpless to prevent the bird from stealing a crown, various other caps, hats, whatever. In trying to stop the bird, they wind up hitting each other as the bird taunts them.
The bird even starts a flood and reduces the size of the hunting party to three rather bedraggled looking souls who make it home-only to find they've brought their misfortune with them. The magpie, with some help, teaches them a very expensive lesson.
Nice, if rather crude, drawings and animation make this worth watching. Recommended.