The Pied Piper (1986) on Netflix
NR198655mAnimationFantasyHorror
Hamelin's people are miserly and prize money and rank. Rats invade at night for food and valuables, spilling into the streets by day. A hooded piper appears before the town leaders.
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- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.8/102,646 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Waste and greed rule Hamelin. Its citizens hoard what they own and measure one another by money and rank, and the town's refuse draws rats. The animals come out at night to carry off food and valuables, and the next day they run through the streets. From a distance a tall figure in a hood watches the town, then sets off toward it. The town leaders gather to work out what can be done about the infestation, and the stranger, a piper, steps into the room where they are meeting. He plays, and the rats follow the sound. Pleased, the leaders promise him a thousand gold coins to rid Hamelin of every rat, and he agrees, then walks through the city with the animals trailing after him.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Pied Piper (1986)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Director Jiří Barta designed the puppets to look deliberately mechanical so that the live rats would seem more alive than the humans; only the characters Agnes and the fisherman got softer designs to represent purity.
- The dialogue is in a fictitious language never meant to be understood by anyone; Barta said it was somewhat based on German, but that rhythm and onomatopoeia mattered more than meaning.
- One scene abandons the puppet style for two-dimensional animation, inspired by medieval painting on wood and especially the art of Jan van Eyck.
- The art design was based on German Expressionism and medieval German art; Barta said making important figures big and secondary figures small solved the film's space problem and justified its lack of logic.
