O místo na slunci ... ("A Place in the Sun") is a 1959 animated short film from Czechoslovakia (the Czech part, now The Czech Republic) directed by Frantisek Vystrcil.
The 5 1/2 minute short involves two men, drawn as stick figures against a plain greenish background. The sun, shining in the upper right hand corner, casts a beam that lights up the ground between the two men. Each of the two men both want to stand in the sun and get warm. When they find themselves unable to share the circle of sunlight peacefully, the two men begin to fight.
Not to be confused with Oscar-winning live action feature film A Place in the Sun.
Tropes:
- Deranged Animation: Surreal animation throughout. The two men are introduced as simple straight lines that come bobbing into the frame, only for each line to change into a stick-figure human. At one point, when one of them has taken over the circle of light, the other reaches up and grabs a squiggly line in the sky that apparently represents a cloud. He puts the squiggly line on the ground below him, and it then represents water. He dives in.
- Happy Ending: A rift somehow opens up in the darkness, allowing the two men to pull it open and bring back the sun. They join their two circles of light into one and sit back-to-back, happily.
- Idiosyncratic Wipe: After one man takes control of the circle of light, the other marches off-screen, and somehow manages to yank a field of black darkness over the other man, in a wipe effect. As he cackles with glee the other man grabs the field of black darkness and pulls it the rest of the way across the frame, completing the wipe. Only after they both laugh for a bit do they realize they've plunged their world into darkness.
- Limited Animation: Increasingly common in this era, and nearly universal in Eastern European Animation of the day. The whole cartoon is simple line drawings against a plain, empty backdrop.
- Manly Tears: Both men break down sobbing when they realize they've plunged themselves into darkness.
- Mime and Music-Only Cartoon: A cheery light instrumental soundtrack, but no dialogue.
- Stick Figure Animation: The two characters are simple stick figures drawn in white lines.
- Thick-Line Animation: The two men and everything else in the cartoon are drawn with thick lines.
