In this episodic animated fantasy from France, an art teacher interprets a series of six fairy tales (each involving a prince or princess) with the help of two precocious students. Princes and Princesses was created using a special style of cutout animation, with black silhouetted characters performing the action against backlit backdrops in striking colors.
Set in Bangkok, the film shows the process of urbanization of the city while humans lose control over the consequences of their actions and their greed. The story begins and we move underground to meet the two protagonists: a pangolin couple. The two lovers are living a tranquil life in their hidden city beneath, when their quiet is upset by sudden earth shakes provoked by the drilling of a construction site above. Separated by the cracks in the soil, they begin an adventurous journey to find each other, taking the viewer deeper into the causes of the loss of connection between humans and the earth beneath and ultimately, of the pandemic.
The members of the Ayrudzi troupe travel across various villages of Armenia on horseback and put on folk song and dance concerts and shadow theatre performances for the locals.
A silhouette animation anthology TV series conceived, written and directed by Michel Ocelot and realised at La Fabrique, consisting of short fantastical stories performed by the same animated "actors." A critical success but commercial failure at the time, no further episodes were commissioned beyond the initial 8, but, following the success of Ocelot's Kirikou and the Sorceress, 6 were edited into the 2000 feature Princes and Princesses, in which form they finally saw wide exposure and acclaim both in France and internationally; a further episode was included in a home release of short works in 2008, but one remains unavailable for public consumption.
