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Fétiche Mascotte (The Mascot)

Director: Ladislas Starevich
Year: 1933
Run-time: 26 min
Source: Youtube

Notable For: The second animated short on the list from 1933 is this stop-motion piece from the Polish-Russian film-maker Ladislas Starevich.  Stop-motion is almost as old as cinema itself (Starevich had been innovating since 1912).  The craft here is as good as any modern film, and Starevich's twisted imagination is on full display, with dolls and household objects coming to life in a dark version of Toy Story.  For animation fans, it almost goes without saying that Starevich was an influence on Jan Svankmajer's work much later.

Verdict:  Every frame is a bizarre delight. There didn't seem to be an overarching plan to this work (indeed, it's possible that The Mascot is an amalgamation of several shorter films featuring the same dog character), and so the film veers from one strange scene to the next, with much of the second half taking place in some kind of tchotchke hell governed by Satan incarnated from a bunch of twigs.  This film is definitely worth seeing, and it's wonderful that it's survived in as good a condition as it has (thanks I believe to the director's grand-daughter).
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