The Monk and the Fish (French: Le Moine et le poisson) is a 1994 animated short film made by Michaël Dudok de Wit at the studio Folimage. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film at the 67th Academy Awards and Best Short Animated Film at the 48th British Academy Film Awards. It was also one of seven short subjects shown in French cinemas and released on VHS[1] as part of the package film Le Petit Cirque et autres contes.[2] It was also included in the Animation Show of Shows.
Plot
Standing next to a water reservoir in a monastery enclave, a monk sees a fish and goes to get his net to catch it. The fish eludes him and the monk gets rather agitated as he tries increasingly extreme ways of catching the fish. He gets into the pond himself, and enlists the help of other monks; he tries candles, and a bow and arrow to no avail. The more the fish manages to evade him, the more obsessed the monk gets. He follows the fish out of the pond into a canal, through different landscapes and out of the confines of the monastery. Eventually the chase gets less frantic and the monk and the fish move in harmony. They float through a door into the open space and drift off into the sky together.
The film was made using a cel animation technique; nowadays cel animation is often assisted by computers, but this has been made in the traditional way using brush, Indian ink, and watercolour.
| Directed by | Michaël Dudok de Wit |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Patrick Eveno Jacques-Remy Girerd |
| Written by | Michaël Dudok de Wit |
| Music by | Serge Besset |
Release dates
| 1994 |
Running time
| 6:20 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | No dialogue |
Michael Dudok de Wit (born 1953 in Abcoude) is a Dutch-British animator, director and illustrator. In 1978, he graduated from the West Surrey College of Art (now the University for the Creative Arts) with his first film The Interview. After working for a year in Barcelona, he settled in London where he directs and animates award-winning commercials for television and cinema. In 1992, he created the short film Tom Sweep, followed by The Monk and the Fish (1994), which was made in France with the studio Folimage. This film was nominated for an Oscar and has won numerous prizes including a César Award for Best Short Film and the Cartoon d'or. Michael also writes and illustrates children's picture books and teaches animation at art colleges in England and abroad.
His most well-known film Father and Daughter (2000) won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, the Grand Prix at Annecy, and dozens of other major awards. His most recent short film is "The Aroma of Tea" (2006), drawn entirely with tea.
All of his films since Tom Sweep feature Michael's trademark brush stroke drawing and his use of ink and watercolour, very much inspired by Chinese and Japanese art.
His films: The Monk and the Fish and Father and Daughter were included in the Animation Show of Shows.
