Director: Kazimierz Urbański
Release date: 1962
Rating: ★★
Review:

‘Playthings’ is a film on fighting. The film knows only monochrome yellow and red backgrounds and silhouetted, abstracted human figures and weapons.

The film starts with some designs based on ancient cave paintings. We watch a group of human figures hunt a deer. When one is killed, another group of more tangram-like humans, arrives, and the fighting starts, with more and more advanced weaponry, like cannons, machine guns, tanks, bomber planes. As can be expected, in the end everybody is killed by a giant, probably nuclear explosion. The message of ‘Playthings’ is crystal clear, but the short is too one-dimensional to make a lasting impression.

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

‘Playthings’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Anthology of Polish Animated Film’