DEFA-Studio für Trickfilme

On a lonely island, where Odysseus has to serve the nymph Calypso, he remembers his great adventures: the glorious victory over Troy; the curse of the sea god Poseidon, whose son he overpowered; the wrestling with Circe, the Lotophagi, the Sirens with their enticing death song and the battle with the bloodthirsty Scylla. Penelope, his wife, meanwhile fights against intrusive suitors who want to kill Odysseus. Athena sends him his son as a savior, who defeats Proteus, Poseidon's vassal. Odysseus is able to free himself from Calypso. Disguised as a beggar, he returns home, punishes the suitors who are after his money and is reunited with Penelope.

A man waits at the side of the motorway with a tow rope, waiting for a car to tow him. Many, many cars go by without stopping until the driver of a small dilapidated car takes pity on him. The rope is attached. The other end of the rope leads to a pot-hole in the road. Lurking insides the pot-hole is a surprise.

After a long wait, a king and queen have a daughter. As there are not enough golden plates, only twelve wise women can be invited to the christening. The thirteenth is so offended by this that she appears uninvited and wishes the child dead. Fortunately, the twelfth fairy has not yet made her wish and is able to alleviate the curse: Sleeping Beauty then stabs herself with a spindle on her fifteenth birthday and falls into a hundred-year sleep, from which a king's son releases her with a kiss.

Animated short film based on the Andersen tale. A king envies his son for the carefree way he spends his days and wants to find him a wife. She must not only be beautiful, but also particularly sensitive, which she must prove with the pea test in bed. The first, a hard-working peasant girl, is sent home immediately, the second leaves of her own accord because she finds the prince too boring, the third passes the test and marries the prince. Now he becomes king, and the old man retires to feed swans from now on.

A young merchant's son spends his entire fortune to be able to throw lavish parties with his cronies. All he has left in the end is an old magic suitcase that can be used to fly.

A joint production by animators of the USSR and the GDR based on children's drawings from the time of the Revolution and drawings by children of the 1970s.

The film tells the well-known fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, in which the little girl Little Red Riding Hood is led astray by the wolf, devoured along with her grandmother and saved by the huntsman.

One morning, a tailor was sitting at the window sewing. A shopkeeper came by and loudly offered plum jam for sale. The little tailor spent his last penny to treat himself. But the sweet smell of plum jam attracted a lot of flies, and when the tailor struck, seven fell by the wayside. This deed seemed so remarkable to the little tailor that he made himself a belt on which it was written that he had killed seven in one go.

With the young Friedrich Engel’s letters and drawings from the years between 1838 and 1842, a unique cinematic portrait is created. The viewer thus gets to know the young Engels personally, learning about the significant moments of his development from a bourgeois-liberal upbringing to the theoretical partner of Karl Marx. Later be awarded the Gold Dove at the International Leipzig Documentary and Short Film Week.

A raindrop falls from a leaf and seeps into the earth. Within, it is permeated by beauty, cruelty, happiness and sadness.

A vain emperor is constantly preoccupied with his appearance. Three swindlers promise to make him extraordinary clothes that can only be seen by people who are honest and clever. The emperor provides the three fashion designers with expensive material and expects to make a grand entrance in his new costumes.

Caliph Harun al-Rashid was turned into a stork by a power-greedy rival. Only with the help of his wise vizier and a beautiful princess is he able to escape the spell. Based on a fairy tale by Wilhelm Hauff.

Cartoon based on letters and drawings of children of Soviet Union and German Democratic Republic.

Puppets play the story based on the famous children's song.

Animated short film based on Andersen's tale.

A mother tells her demanding little boy a story to make him fall asleep.

The residents in heaven are worried because Santa does not know what to do. All of the children would like a sputnik that beeps for Christmas. Nobody in Santa's crew knows what a sputnik is. So he has to go to earth and find out about it.

Farmer Wurzel is unhappy because his work is not bringing him the prosperity he had hoped for. Nor can he expect his daughter to marry rich, unfortunately she loves the poor fishmonger Kaspar. In order to make a lot of money, the farmer would even get involved with the devil...

A farmer owns a pear tree, three daughters and a chicken. Every year he has to deliver three baskets of pears to the king. Once, when he is unable to fill the third one, he puts his youngest daughter in it. The prince discovers her and immediately falls in love. The king is against the union and sets her the difficult task of fetching the treasure chest from the Tower of Winds. With the prince's help, the pear girl overcomes all difficulties and brings the treasure chest to the castle. Nevertheless, she is not supposed to get the prince and has to outwit the king with a clever idea.

The Prince of Porcelain, who only knows how to play with vain ladies in a cool porcelain world, wants to own the poor potters' myrtle tree. It was given to them instead of a child. The prince is sick with longing. The potter couple bring him the myrtle tree. He falls in love with it and one night discovers that a beautiful girl lives in it.