There Are No Blue Mice

(Blaue Mäuse gibt es nicht)

GDR, 1958, 11 min, color
In German; English subtitles
Credits:
Director
Script
Scenario
Editor
Camera
Music (Score)
Sound
Producer
Production Company

Synopsis

Two little mice are forbidden by their parents from playing with the differently looking blue mouse: All respectable mice are gray! We don't want anything to do with you! But the little mice ignore their parents' demands and play all together in a painter’s studio, jumping into pots of paint in different colors! The horrified parents are suddenly presented with three colorful mice, and they no longer know which ones are their own children. A story about accepting differences and how prejudices may be built on false assumptions.

Commentary

“A bourgeois mouse couple is shown who has to accept instruction from their own children and are forced to move in reality without preconceived judgments. The indirect narrative method of making a behavioural study of the child-parent relationship tangible via a family of mice was [officially] disparaged and dismissed as a ‘non-realistic’ creative approach. Skillful graphic solutions and ideas were even labeled as ‘straining after formal effects’.”   —Jörg Herrmann, Die Trick-Fabrik

Awards

2018 Generation Special, Berlin International Film Festival, Germany
2014 Colorful DEFA Animation Parade, Short Film Program, Zeughauskino, Berlin, Germany
2015 Retrospective 60 Years of Dresden Magic, Potsdam, Germany
1960 VII. Sydney International Film Festival, Australia

 

Availability

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