Ken Lidster

Short animated film from Ken Lidster

Like Fantasia (1940) or Allegro Non Troppo (1977), L'Opéra Imaginaire (1993) is an assembly of animated short films based on classic music greats. Directed by some of the best European animators and artists, L'Opéra Imaginaire takes us through dance, theater, music and painting masterpieces. It uses several animation techniques, like stop-motion clay animation or CG characters.

A thin shadow figure starts swallowing balloons in an attempt to make himself more solid, and develops body, surface texture, markings and a face. Meanwhile, a lonely young girl is attracted by the balloons' hissing sounds, and is drawn to the shadow's lair. The grinning shadow quickly ties her up, but, overconfident, becomes entangled in his own machinery, and has the body squeezed out of him. All that's left is one of the balloons, which the girl takes with her as she leaves, now quite happy.

An ejaculate of sperm swim through a uterus. At the branches of the Fallopian tubes, half go one way and half the other. Down one tube toward the sperm bounces a female head, singing, happily on her way. Four sperm zero in; she panics but can't avoid them. Pow! they hit her full force and disappear into her. The decision she makes and what she does next change the course of her life in a major way.