Director: Zbginiew Rybczyński
Release date: 1976
Rating: ★★★★
Review:

Avant-garde animator Zbginiew Rybczyński, of later ‘Tango’ fame, brings us a fun little children’s film based on a poem by Julian Tuwim on trains.

The poem is set to lively jazz music by Janusz Hajdan, which Rybczyński accompanies with images of anything but trains. The lyrics are illustrated associatively, with animated pictures of a baby, a dog, an elephant. etc.

The most common element is a fat moustached man, done in pixilation. The pixilated photos are rendered in monochromes, mostly on a monochrome green canvas, which give the film a unique and very avant-garde look. Apart from the pixilation there’s a little, rather cartoony cel animation that convinces less.

‘Locomotive’ may be much less compelling than ‘Tango’, this children’s short already show that Rybczyński was a very original and idiosyncratic film maker.

Watch ‘Locomotive’ yourself and tell me what you think:

‘Locomotive’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Anthology of Polish Children’s Animation’