A stop-motion film from Émile Cohl with tin soldiers, children’s drawings and cannibals.
The Little Soldier Who Became a God (1908)
Original title: Le petit soldat qui devient Dieu
Facts
Director | Émile Cohl |
Country | France |
Language | French |
Titles |
(Original)
Le petit soldat qui devient Dieu
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Production | |
Distribution |
Categories
Absurd Animation Black and White Blackface Comedy Cultural Appropriation Death God Hopelessness Idolatry Short Silent Film Stop-Motion Worship AnimationComedyShortAbsurd, Black and White, Blackface, Cultural Appropriation, Death, God, Hopelessness, Idolatry, Silent Film, Stop-Motion, WorshipDescription
The film starts with two little girls playing with their dolls on a pavement outside a house. A lady comes and gives a tin box to one of the two girls. They peep at the content of the box but prefer to play with their hoops and leave the place keeping the tin box over a drawing copy. A soon as they leave, the lid of the box opens on it's own and we can see that it contains a number of toy soldiers inside. The box then moves to one side and the soldiers enter the scene marching from the right. The buildings drawn in the drawing copy serves as a backdrop and the soldiers seem to guard the buildings. Watch the film to see what the toy soldiers do in front of the buildings before they again get inside the tin box and get transported from the scene. One of the soldiers gets left behind. He then persues his own adventure through a waterway and finally gets rescued by a black tribal kid. The kid takes the soldier to the Chief of the tribe. Watch the film to see what happened next and how the solitary soldier gets reverred as a God by the tribe.
Source: Antara's Diary
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Cast
Crew
Émile Cohl | - | Writer (Other) |
Émile Cohl | - | Director |
Reviews
This little film is an early stop motion mixed with film, and this movie is about two girls playing with their toy soldiers - then one is left alone when the others are packed away. He goes on a journey and winds up in presumably Africa. Here some blackfaced people, a tribe, find the toy - and the chief licks it, gets poisoned, and dies. After this, the Toy Soldier is worshipped as a god. That is a pretty fantastical journey. I found the middle part with the stop motion to be quite boring and long, but the whole seemed quite entertaining and unexpected.