Balloon

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title Balloon
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Publishing year 1991
length 12 minutes
Rod
Director Ken Lidster
script Ken Lidster
production National Film and Television School
music Julio d'Escriván
cut Jamie McCoan

Balloon is a partially kneaded animated short film by Ken Lidster from 1991.

action

In a dark world a girl is dancing with her red balloon. He is his friend and has human feelings. He sees the world in red. If the girl threatens to fall dizzy from all the pirouettes , he supports her. The girl conjures up white flowers around her and is happy. It failed to notice that a shadow tried to take the balloon and the balloon struggled. The shadow turns into a clown and appears in front of the girl. First he does some magic and finally offers the girl a lollipop in exchange for the balloon. It refuses and the clown finally shows him a ball that can create a whole circus with light reflections. The girl exchanges the balloon for the ball and the clown triumphantly hurries away with the sad balloon. As soon as the clown is gone, the ball turns black and the girl realizes that she has been betrayed.

The clown leaves the black background and changes into a white world. There are numerous devices that are used to torture balloons. When they are almost dead, the clown, who now becomes a shadow again, sucks them up and regenerates himself in this way. The red balloon is also tortured by being thrown at sharp thorns. The girl hears his loud complaints and hurries into the white world. Here he succeeds in turning off the instruments of torture. Some balloons manage to escape. The shadow, who has now become a clown again, ties the girl and places her on an instrument of torture. He can turn on the device, but two balloons have already carried the girl up and saved her. The red balloon in turn succeeds in hurling the clown into one of his machines, where he ends up bursting like a balloon. The girl wants to hug the red balloon stormily, but it backs away. After a while he hands the girl his balloon thread, which she grabs. The world goes black again and the girl and balloon dance together as white flowers form around them.

production

Balloon was made as a graduation film by Canadian Ken Lidster at the National Film and Television School near London . He mixes animation and claymation. Belinda Crane spoke the noises of the girl and Eddie Osei of the shadow .

Awards

In 1992, Balloon won the BAFTA for Best Animated Short Film . He was also nominated for the Golden Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival in the Best Short Film category.

Web links