The Mole and his Friends – Daycare-cinema

The little mole's friends steal his cherries. But the little mole has an idea how to make them feel ashamed. Wordless classical Czech animation by Zdeněk Miler.

Mole (Czech: Krtek, Krteček) is an animated character in a series of cartoons created by Czech animator Zdeněk Miler. The premiere of the first short film with Mole took place at the Venice Film Festival in 1957.[1] Since its inception, the cartoon has gained enormous popularity in many Central European countries, as well as India, China, Kazakhstan, Croatia, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Iran, Iraq, and Japan.

History

Krtek was first seen in 1956 in Prague, when Miler wanted to create a children's cartoon about how flax is processed. He wanted a strong Disney influence to the cartoon by choosing an animal for the leading role, and decided to pick a mole after stumbling over a molehill during a walk. The first film, called "Jak krtek ke kalhotkám přišel" ("How the mole got his trousers"), had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 1957, where it was awarded two Golden Lions. Production of further episodes started in 1963 and since then, around fifty episodes have been created.

The first episode of the cartoon was narrated, but Miler wanted the cartoon to be understood in every country of the world, so he decided to use his daughters as voice actors, reducing the speech to short non-figurative exclamations in order to express the mole's feelings and world perception. Miler's daughters also became the bottleneck of the creation process as they were the ones who got to see the whole film first, thus Miler was able to decide whether the message of the movie was able to get to children or not.

"It took me a long time to realize it, but when I draw Krtek, I was drawing myself". Miler

— Zdeněk Miler

Here we will see the following episodes:
- The Mole and the Ducklings
- The Mole and the Birthdays
- The Mole and the Robot
- The Mole and the Trip
- The Mole and his Friends

Wordless, only music. Duration apx. 30 min. Age recommendation: 3+. For daycare-groups, preschools, stay home-parents. Free of charge, mandatory registration for groups @ Kultus.fi