Within the world of animation, most experimentation occurs within short format productions, whether they are high-budgeted commercials, low-budgeted independent shorts or something in between. The growing number of short film festivals around the world attest to the vitality of these works, but there are few other venues for exhibition of them or even written reviews. As a result, distribution tends to be difficult and irregular. On a regular basis, Animation World Magazine will highlight some of the most interesting with short, descriptive overviews.

If you have the QuickTime plug-in, you can view a clip from each film by simply clicking the image.

The Little Matchgirl (2006), 6:37, by Roger Allers (U.S.A.). Contact; Emily Hoppe, Marketing and Communication, Walt Disney Feature Animation [T] 818.460.8936, [F] 818.460.9202 [E] Emily.hoppe@disney.com

A Gentleman’s Duel (2006), 7:45, directed by Francisco Ruiz (Mexico) and Sean McNally (U.S.A.). Contact: Jennifer Miller, Blur Studio [T] 310.581.8848 [F] 310.581.8850 [E] Jennifer@blur.com, [W] www.blur.com

Maestro (2005), 4:446, directed by Géza Tóth (Hungary). Contact: Niki Kárász, production manager, KEDD, Ltd., Budapest, Batthyany u. 52/B., H-1015 Hungary [T/F] +35.1.201.9118 [E] kedd@kedd.net

Child’s Trip (2005), 5:50, directed by Kei Takahashi (Japan). Contact: Kei Takahaski [E] ikeya6@jmpd.jp

Tartes Aux Pommes (2006), 9:28, directed by Isabelle Favez (Switzerland). Contact: Swiss Effects, Thurgauerstrasse 40, 8050 Zürich, Switzerland [T] +41.44.307.10.10 [E] info@swisseffects.ch

Disney resists giving a “Disney version” ending to The Little Matchgirl. © Disney.

The Little Matchgirl
It may end with a shooting star, but it’s not quite the Disney ending many home viewers will be expecting at the end of the new Oscar-nominated Disney short, The Little Matchgirl. Near dusk on a very cold day in St. Petersburg, snow is discreetly falling from leaden clouds as a little girl stands on a bridge and watches children skating on the frozen Neva River. The girl is knocked off-balance by a sleigh and she has to reach down and recover her belongings, a box of long stick matches. With some trepidation the girl stands in the busy street and returns to work, her job being a continuous attempt to sell the matches to passers-by. Not surprisingly it’s a tough sell, as most of the pedestrians are simply darting to their next appointment with hands stuffed firmly in pockets and the one man stopping to light up some tobacco has his own lighter.

Lost in the bustle of traffic, the girl remains crowded and yet utterly alone. Standing on a barrel under a lamppost to better catch her customers’ eyes, she happens to see a family coming out of a toy shop, a young boy and girl fussing over their recent gifts from mom and dad in a casual dance of carefree bliss before getting in the family sleigh and riding off. Meanwhile a uniformed man has lifted the girl bodily from the barrel and plopped her back on the ground. She tries to save face by offering him match, but he makes a dismissive gesture and exits.

The lamplighters come and the traffic starts to thin, so the girl heads home for the evening -- only she hasn’t got one; or, rather, home is disconcertingly a snowdrift in a dark alley. Cold and hungry, all she can do is turn to her matches for heat and hope. She lights one against the stony side of a building and holds it up to her face -- and through her 1,000-yard stare her mind transforms an empty tin canister buried in the snow into the black frame of an iron stove. The girl basks in its glow, holding up her feet -- and then the match goes out.

She lights another. In this fantasy the match becomes candles on a table set with a bountiful Christmas meal, a huge bronzed turkey glowing succulently in the candlelight. She reaches for a drumstick. She pulls back a smoldering match. With grim determination she looks in her box of matches, which is quickly being depleted, and lights another. This time a team of horses bound up from nowhere and she’s whisked into a sleigh and over hill and dale into the country. A simple house appears. She leaves the sleigh, goes to the window and peers inside, then knocks on the door. Her grandmother answers.

The girl is overjoyed, but again the match goes out. Angry and desperate in the cold alley, she lights all the remaining matches at once. The dream image returns: she falls into the loving arms of Grandma, who takes her into the room with the Christmas tree aglow, presents underneath, the candles on the tree glowing warmly to match her happiness. The next morning, back in the alley, the girl is slumped in the snow. From the shadows Grandma approaches and wakes her; she glows with relief and happiness; and Grandma carries her away on her shoulder -- leaving her tiny dead body behind in the snow as both of them vanish through the stone alley wall and disappear.