The Criterion Channel is planning a sizzling summer programming event for animation aficionados, with 31 boundary-pushing films from the 1950s up to the present decade — including the exclusive streaming premiere of Yonfan’s No. 7 Cherry Lane, as previously announced. Premiering July 1, Art-House Animation kicks off a month of compelling programs for film buffs, which also includes collections of neo noir and Wong Kar Wai titles.
The endless possibilities of animation are on dazzling display in Art-House Animation — a round-the-world showcase of some of the medium’s most innovative, boundary-pushing, and mind-enhancing examples. Far from cuddly kid’s stuff, these optical wonders are frequently dark, transgressive, sexually charged and psychologically complex, using the anything-goes potential of animation to evoke expressionistic inner worlds and transport viewers to realms of the fantastical and the bizarre. Czech stop-motion surrealism (The Fabulous Baron Munchausen, Alice), Hungarian psychedelia (Son of the White Mare), visionary Japanese anime (Mind Game, Paprika), American underground experimentation (Consuming Spirits), hallucinatory Chilean horror (The Wolf House), Palestinian political satire (The Wanted 18) and many more fantasias leap off the screen in this epic animation celebration that will leave your imagination whirling and your retinas reeling.
The films are:
- Journey to the Beginning of Time, Karel Zeman, 1955
- Invention for Destruction, Karel Zeman, 1958
- The Fabulous Baron Munchausen, Karel Zeman, 1962
- Belladonna of Sadness, Eiichi Yamamoto, 1973
- János vitéz, Marcell Jankovics, 1973
- Fantastic Planet, René Laloux, 1973
- Watership Down, Martin Rosen, 1978
- Son of the White Mare, Marcell Jankovics, 1981
- Plague Dogs, Martin Rosen, 1982
- Alice, Jan Švankmajer, 1988
- Faust, Jan Švankmajer, 1994
- Mind Game, Masaaki Yuasa, 2004
- Paprika, Satoshi Kon, 2006
- Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, 2007
- Waltz with Bashir, Ari Folman, 2008
- A Town Called Panic, Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar, 2009
- Mary and Max, Adam Elliot, 2009
- Chico & Rita, Tono Errando, Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, 2010
- The Rabbi’s Cat, Joann Sfar and Antoine Delesvaux, 2011
- Alois Nebel, Tomáš Luňák, 2011
- Tatsumi, Eric Khoo, 2011
- The King of Pigs, Yeon Sang-ho, 2011
- It’s Such a Beautiful Day, Don Hertzfeldt, 2012
- Consuming Spirits, Chris Sullivan, 2012
- Aya of Yop City, Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie, 2013
- Rocks in My Pockets, Signe Baumane, 2014
- The Wanted 18, Amer Shomali and Paul Cowan, 2014
- The Girl Without Hands, Sébastien Laudenbach, 2016
- Tower, Keith Maitland, 2016
- The Wolf House, Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña, 2018
- 7 Cherry Lane, Yonfan, 2019
