History Animation / ThePiedPiper

* RayOfHopeEnding: [[spoiler:The film ends with the now deserted Hamelin being abandoned by its only inhabitants left: The Fisherman and a baby he rescues from the empty towm; who the Fisherman takes far away to a better place to live in.]]

* ChekhovsGunman: The Fisherman shows up at the middle point of the film watching Hamelin and the Piper's arrival from afar with curiosity [[spoiler:returns in the last 5 minutes after the Piper is finished with drowning the rat-humans, he searches the empty Hamelin until he hears an abandoned baby, who he rescues and takes away with him to a better place to live.]]

* ChekhovsGunman: The Fisherman shows up at the start of the film watching Hamelin and the Piper from afar [[spoiler:returns in the last 5 minutes after the Piper is finished with drowning the rat-humans, he searches the empty Hamelin until he hears an abandoned baby, who he rescues and takes away with him to a better place to live.]]

* RayOfHopeEnding: [[spoiler:The film ends with the now deserted Hamelin being abandoned by its only inhabitants left: The Fisherman and a baby he rescues from the empty tow; who the Fisherman takes far away to a better place to live in.]]

* SwarmOfRats: Like in the original fairy tale, the rats end up overtaking the town of Hamelin which prompts the town to request the Piper's help to get rid of. [[spoiler:At the end the townsfolk all become one when the Piper decides to pay their kindness back.]]

* AdaptationalHeroism: Zigzagged with the Pied Piper himself. On the one hand, his motivations for [[spoiler: luring the townspeople to their deaths]] was not only because he didn't get paid, but also because [[spoiler: he witnessed the death of an innocent woman.]] On the other hand, [[spoiler: he actually committed genocide]] in this version by [[spoiler: leading the townspeople to their deaths]] whereas in the original fairy tale, the worst he did was lure the children away to never be seen again, [[spoiler:however, considering he spared an innocent baby and the Fisherman who were all but stated to be the only pure souls left after the woman's death, it does give him some heroic points.]]

* CrapsackWorld: The town of Hamelin is not a nice place to live in as all the townspeople are greedy and petty and the town leaders are specially corrupted. The only good people in town are the woman, Fisherman and the baby who all refuse to fall into the rabbit hole of greed and cruelty of the other townsfolk.

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: For all the trouble the rats caused, the film portrays the rodents in a sympathetic light by showing that they merely follow their nature and care about each other being willing to share resources and food while portrayed in a soft and "alive" way. Meanwhile, the humans of Hamelin are either stupid, ruthless, corrupt, selfish, greedy, perverted, gluttonous or all of the former while portrayed in a deranged mechanical manner, with only 3 of the whole population being potrayed as good people (the woman, the Fisherman and the baby).
* JabbaTableManners: The town leaders themselves. Whenever a scene of them eating occurs, they are shown greedily shoving food down their throats accompanied with loud smacking.

* SwarmOfRats: Like in the original fairy tale, the rats end up overtaking the town of Hamelin. [[spoiler:At the end the townsfolk all become one when the Piper decides to pay their kindness back.]]
* TransformationTrauma: The ending [[spoiler: where the Pied Piper transforms the townspeople into rats and you can see the townspeople panicking as this is taking place.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: While all of the corrupt and cruel townspeople were transformed into rats and fell into the lake to drown in karmic fashion, the young innocent woman was murdered without the Piper being able to save her, the Piper himself vanishes after the townspeople are drowned and Hamelin is left empty; but the uncorrupted Fisherman survives and rescues the only other pure soul left: a baby, taking them to a faraway better place to live in.]]

* AdaptationalHeroism: Zigzagged with the Pied Piper himself. On the one hand, his motivations for [[spoiler: luring the townspeople to their deaths]] was not only because he didn't get paid, but also because [[spoiler: he witnessed the death of an innocent woman.]] On the other hand, [[spoiler: he actually committed genocide]] in this version by [[spoiler: leading the townspeople to their deaths]] whereas in the original fairy tale, the worst he did was lure the children away to never be seen again.
* ArtShift: There are some scenes where the rats are shown in live action. This was done to show that the rats are more alive than the humans.

** Subverted with the Fisherman as he has a similar design to most of the townspeople, but is an innocent character as well.
* BittersweetEnding: More on the bitter side, but in the end, [[spoiler: while all of the townspeople were transformed into rats and fell into the lake to drown and the young innocent woman was murdered; the innocent fisherman is the only one to survive and he ends up taking an abandoned baby to a better place away from the now deserted village.]]
* BodyHorror: [[spoiler: The townspeople experienced this when they started transforming into rats. Either some of the townspeople had rat heads on a human body or some had human heads on rat bodies.]]
* CrapsackWorld: The town of Hamelin is not a nice place to live in as all the townspeople are greedy and petty and even the town leaders are corrupted.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Even though the original fairy tale had the Pied Piper lure the children of Hamelin away to never be seen again, this version contains a bit of violence, a darker and gloomier atmosphere, [[spoiler: a rape and murder scene of an innocent woman and the Pied Piper transforming all of the townspeople into rats and leading them to the lake to drown.]] Also, the Pied Piper's appearance is much darker and more mysterious than the jester like appearance in other interpretations.
* DerangedAnimation: Since the designs of the city and the characters were based on German Expressionism and medieval German art, the movie tends to evoke this. Like for instance, there were a couple of scenes where the rats are shown to be much larger in scale than the buildings and the people themselves.

* KillEmAll: What happened to [[spoiler: the townspeople at the end of the film after they were transformed into rats and force to go into the lake to drown.]]
* KillTheCutie: [[spoiler: The young and innocent woman who falls in love with the Pied Piper ends up being raped and murdered by the Jeweler and his companions later on in the film.]]

* SwarmOfRats: Like in the original fairy tale, the rats end up overtaking the town of Hamelin.
* TransformationTrauma: The ending [[spoiler: where the Pied Piper transforms the townspeople into rats and you can see the townspeople panicking as this is taking place.]]

* BittersweetEnding: More on the bitter side, but in the end, [[spoiler: while all of the townspeople were transformed into rats and fell into the lake to drown and the young innocent woman was murdered; the fisherman was the only one to survived and he ends up taking in a baby who was abandoned to a better place.]]

* ArtShift: There are some scenes where the rats are shown in live action and then are stop motion animated in the next scene. This was done to show that the rats are more alive than the humans.

* CrapsackWorld: The town of Hamelin is not a nice place to live at as all the townspeople are greedy and petty and even the town leaders are corrupted.

* BittersweetEnding: More on the bitter side, but in the end, [[spoiler: while all of the townspeople were transformed into rats and fell into the lake to drown and the young innocent woman was murdered; the fisherman was the only one to survive and he ends up taking in a baby who was abandoned to a better place.]]

* JabbaTableManners: The town leaders themselves. Whenever a scene of them eating occurs, they are shown shoving the food in their faces accompanied with loud smacking.

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The Pied Piper towards the end of the film [[spoiler: when he transforms the townspeople into rats and then leads them to the lake to drown after he was denied payment and saw the innocent woman dead in her house.]]

* AdaptionalHeroism: Zigzagged with the Pied Piper himself. On the one hand, his motivations for [[spoiler: luring the townspeople to their deaths]] was not only because he didn't get paid, but also because [[spoiler: he witnessed the death of an innocent woman]] is a bit more heroic compared to him just plotting his revenge because he didn't get paid in the original fairy tale. On the other hand, [[spoiler: he actually committed genocide]] in this version by [[spoiler: leading the townspeople to their deaths]] whereas in the original fairy tale, the worst he did was lure the children away to never be seen again.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Even though the original fairy tale had the Pied Piper lure the children of Hamelin away to never be seen again, this version contains a bit of violence, a darker and gloomy atmosphere, [[spoiler: a rape and murder scene of an innocent woman and the Pied Piper transforming all of the townspeople into rats and leading them to the lake to drown.]] Also, the Pied Piper's appearance is much darker and more mysterious than the jester like appearance in other interpretations.

* KillTheCutie: [[spoiler: The young and innocent woman who falls in love with the Pied Piper ends up being raped and murdered by the Jeweler and his companions later on in the film.]]

* DarkerAndEdgier: Even though the original fairy tale had the Pied Piper lure the children of Hamelin away to never be seen again, this version contains a bit of violence, a darker and gloomy atmosphere, [[spoiler: a rape and murder scene of an innocent woman and the Pied Piper transforming all of the townspeople into rats and leading them to the lake to drown.]] Also, the Pied Piper's appearance is much darker and more mysterious than jester like appearance in other interpretations.

* DerangedAnimation: Since the designs of the city and the characters were based on German Expressionism and medieval German art, the movie tends to evoke this. Like for instance, there were a couple of scenes where the rats are shown to be much larger in scale than the buildings and the people themselves.

* DerangedAnimation: Since the designs of the city and the characters were based on German Expressionism and medieval German art, the movie tends to evoke this. Like for instance, there were a couple of scenes where the rats are shown to be much larger in scale than the buildings and the people themselves.

* HappyEnding: 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.
* IdiosyncraticWipe: 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.
* LimitedAnimation: Increasingly common in this era, and nearly universal in EasternEuropeanAnimation of the day. The whole cartoon is simple line drawings against a plain, empty backdrop.
* ManlyTears: Both men break down sobbing when they realize they've plunged themselves into darkness.
* MimeAndMusicOnlyCartoon: A cheery light instrumental soundtrack, but no dialogue.
* StickFigureAnimation: The two characters are simple stick figures drawn in white lines.
* ThickLineAnimation: The two men and everything else in the cartoon are drawn with thick lines.

Meanwhile, the jeweler, who is apart of the elite group of the town's leaders, tries to seduce an innocent woman. But the innocent woman doesn't want anything to do with the jeweler and she instead falls in love with the Pied Piper himself. Afterwards, the Pied Piper goes to the town leaders to collect his payment, but the town leaders refused to pay the Pied Piper his payment and the Pied Piper ends up leaving in anger. Things get worse from that point forward...-

* DerangedAnimation: 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.

''Krysar'' ("The Pied Piper) is a 1986 Czechoslovakian animated dark fantasy film that was directed by Jiří Barta and is an adaptation of the classic fairy tale ''Literature/ThePiedPiperOfHamelin''.

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 ''Film/APlaceInTheSun''.

''O misto na slunci'' ("A Place in the Sun") is a 1959 animated short film from Czechoslovakia (the Czech part, now UsefulNotes/TheCzechRepublic) directed by Frantisek Vystrcil.

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