In 1936, a young Czechoslovakian art student with a fascination for puppets left university with big dreams. He formed a troupe of puppeteers, with hopes to bring joy to a world. A few years later, war broke out across the globe, as fascism was on the rise. The troupe was dissolved and the joy was gone. He retreated to a small theater house to build sets.

This man was Jiri Trnka, a man that would go on to be considered the “Czech Disney”, an inspiration for all future animators in the Czechoslovakia, a country renowned for techniques in stop motion, hand-drawn animation, and puppetry. For years, Czech animators failed to step out of the enormous shadow Trnka cast with his puppet strings.

Until 3 decades later, another Jiri set out to take the foundation his idol built and take it to new heights. Jiri Barta set out to build his own reality. More nightmarish. More macabre. More experimental, reflecting the brutal reality that faced his generation.

This is a tale of two Jiris.  Two Czech animators, from two generations, that shook the world of animation forever.