Toys in the Attic

I mean really, I stand in awe.I didn't know, at first, that this was by Jiri (pronounced kind of like "Year-zhee") Barta. That would have sold me right then, since Czech  animators  and  Barta  in particular display senses of the macabre, joyous, heroic, delicate, and mysterious all at once. (Since so many of them worked, or tried to, during the Soviet oppression, that seems rather natural.)This, like any brilliant work of art, works at many levels. Physically the puppets and objects combine Svankamjer's sensibilities with Joseph Cornell's supply closet. In image creation, Barta melds live action with flip-books (or something close), stop animation, overdrawing, and I don't know what-all in computer animation and postproduction. The stop-animated puppets, however, embody unique personalities in their materials, structure, and articulation, even before you hear them speak,Skipping ahead, I have to applaud the English language rendering. Taken in itself, it expresses the characters and helps bring them to life, even though English was never considered when the movie's original Czech version came out. But, the English is dubbed so it syncs to Czech mouth movements (mostly). This involved heroics on the parts of the scriptwriters, voice actors, and sound masters to create some cadence that a lip-reader might believe.Backing up to the original, though, this represents a rather daring fable of personal freedom against the militarists, something Barta lived through before the Velvet Revolution. The plaster talking head had some reality in the Stalin era, and the spies and operatives remained real until the Stasi got their pink slips.Behind and in front of everything else, though, this stands out as a major artwork, masterfully crafted and carrying more meaning than any one reading can disclose. I've admired Barta's art before. This, however, impresses me in more different ways than I can hope to name.-- wiredweird

This was a little like watching Gumby. Yes, it was Claymation and the toys looked a little creepy to me, but my 6 year old daughter somehow enjoyed it so I have to give it at least a 4-star. She's actually watched it at least 3 x now since I've bought it for Christmas. The story does at least have a good moral value to it so that makes up for the creepy appearance of some of the characters. It has a very old European feel to it, lol. The main character is an old porcelain doll which creeps me out to begin with, but don't judge me on that. I've probably seen Chucky too many times.

Wow, What can I say. This was a very cool movie. I liked it because it's off the beaten bath and very entertaining. the effort was well played and the quality shows in the end product. I will watch this many times over. Give it a try and you will not be disappointed. It sneaks up on you...

Great film! My son and I are fans of offbeat stop motion animation and found this film to be a real gem. We discovered it at our library and was happy to buy it. I think $5 is a bargain for this movie. My five year old loves this movie, but I could however imagine some little kids finding some of the characters spooky. I recommend guardians viewing it first and deciding from there. If you are interested in something out of the norm this film is it.

I'm writing this review as I watch it.20 minutes in: Animation is wonderful, but I am thoroughly bored out of my mind. Stopped the film to read reviews. Decided I will continue. Started this review.30 minutes in: 1 interesting and mildly dark thing has happened. At this point, I'm rooting for the cat.45 minutes in: Very creative use of materials to achieve special effects. Still bored by the story. I can see why people say this is too disturbing for little kids. Older kids would have no problems with it, but I can't see this appealing to older children until they become teenagers in high school --- or maybe college students -- who have serious interest in art and film making. The cat is still my favorite character.1 hour in: I feel like the plaster headed bust character is cheating on the animation. It makes sense, but still... Otherwise, I'm very impressed from a technical achievement point, yet I've seen enough. I don't care about any of the characters; I want the good guys to fail as that could make it interesting. On the other hand, the villains are dull too. There's only 18 minutes left, so I'll stick it out. Not enough cat in the last 15 minutes.POSSIBLE SPOILERSEnd credits: Ugh, Buttercup clones; and it was pointless. I did enjoy the disco celebration, even if it was short-lived. The impromptu black hole was just bizarre, and not in a good way as a story-telling device. The cat just completely disappears from the story; of course the one character I liked gets hosed.I was really looking forward to seeing this film, but I was sorely disappointed. People say this is dark, but only marginally. It's spectacularly made, but dull. It's great eye candy, but a bland kidnapping story.

Fabulous movie, using weird old crap in an attic. Victorian doll, overfed bear, weird knight puppet, and animate turd-with-bottlecap defeat perverted plaster bust (With animate gloves, eye on cable, and various minions). Then they all eat cake. In between grandma and kid do laundry, several floods and furniture climbing happen, various train and airline wrecks occur, and Marie Curie reincarnates as a mechanistic mouse.

Toys in the Attic is a Beautiful work of art. The animation is very detailed. It shows a good point of view from a toys life.

But "Different" certainly does not make it great. At one point, early in the movie I said to my grand daughter "This is weird, and weird enough that I HAVE to keep watching," We both liked it, but neither of us loved it. We give it a grade of C+BTW...I was sure we ordered the HD download version, but on our smart TV it was 4;3 letterbox, not widescreen, and did not appear to be in HD. That was dissapointing

My 5 year old and 8 year old boys enjoyed this movie. I doubt they would watch it again though.

Great film.arrived on time

Good

Fast delivery. Overall a good film

Perfecto viene con la versión 3D y 2D, muy buen precio.subtitulos en inglés y alemán, llegó rápido y perfectamente empaquetado.