Die schwarze Burg (The Black Fortress)

East Germany and Czechoslovakia, 1987, 17 minutes, color
Director: Barbara Eckhold
Director of Photography: Siegfried Jung
Music: Svetozár Stur
Animation: Stefan Martauz, Barbara Eckhold
Based on the Slovakian fairy tale, claymation
VHS-PAL, no subtitles - renting information

Synopsis:

When Martin returns from war, he finds that nothing is the way it once was. He watches a few remaining villagers leave offerings in the town square for a giant monster, and he sees that whoever has nothing left for the monster is turned into stone. To make matters worse, Martin finds out that his fiancee, Maria, is being held captive in the monster’s Black Fortress.

The villagers unite to help smuggle Martin into the Black Fortress. There he finds Maria, who helps him defeat the beast. All those who had been turned to stone turn back again, and everything goes back to the way it was.

Also on this tape: Die Schöne und das Tier

DEFA-Puppentrickfilm: Märchen aus aller Welt
Volume I: Das Birnenmädchen, Es waren einmal drei Schwestern
Volume II: Die Schöne und das Tier, Die schwarze Burg
Volume III: Urwaldmärchen, Vom faulen Töpfer und dem fleißigen Wäscher

Die Schöne und das Tier (Beauty and the Beast)

East Germany, 1976, 24 minutes, color
Production: Horst Phillipp, Manfred Jähne, Anita Uebe, Helga Kurth, Willibald Hofmann, Volker Hartmann, Gottfried Reinhardt, Ulrike Röhricht, Horst Elsner, Klaus Piontek, Hedda Gehm, Eberhard Klotzsche, Peter Pohler, Katja Georgi
Based on the French fairy tale, claymation
VHS-PAL, no subtitles - renting information

Synopsis:

After his wife dies in childbirth, a man is left alone with his young daughter, Belle. One day a fairy appears to him, promising him that Belle will have good fortune, but that he must leave her, at sixteen, to be cared for by someone with a good heart. Many years go by, and one day the man finds himself caught in the middle of a storm. He is thrown from his horse and wakes to find himself in a castle. All of his needs are met—for food, wine, warmth, and care for his horse. But when he plucks a rose from the garden as a gift for his daughter, the beast of the castle confronts him and allows him to leave only in exchange for Belle herself.

When the man tells his daughter what happened, she insists that she go to the beast’s castle, in order that her father’s life may be spared. Although at first Belle is cared of the beast, gradually they become more comfortable with each other. Each night he asks her to marry him, and although she becomes very fond of him, she can not bring herself to accept. When she finds that her father is ill, the beast’s kindness allows her to return to her father. But after nursing her father back to health, Belle realizes that her heart belongs to the beast.

Lovely puppets act out this well-known tale, true to its original French version. Also on this tape is another love story: Die schwarze Burg.

DEFA-Puppentrickfilm: Märchen aus aller Welt
Volume I: Das Birnenmädchen, Es waren einmal drei Schwestern
Volume II: Die Schöne und das Tier, Die schwarze Burg
Volume III: Urwaldmärchen, Vom faulen Töpfer und dem fleißigen Wäscher