DEFA-Studio für Trickfilme

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.

Riding outside, the princess and the court juggler Honorio discover a fire in the marketplace. Honorio kills a tiger that has escaped from the jugglers, a lion is tamed by a boy's wonderful flute playing and returned to the jugglers, whose livelihood it provides.

Olli, the main character in the movie, got a very bad grade and is terribly annoyed. She runs away from home and, together with a dog and a horse, finds a (mad? nutty?) scientist in a windmill. They experience the strangest adventures in this windmill and find other interesting characters, a lot of excitement and peril. While you may well interpret something as the "socialist value system" into this movie, it is more meant to be a children's movie, showing the kids that there are more exciting things out there than the ones that your parents and teachers show you, and that you will only find out most of those things on your own, if you show enough curiosity.

A poor woodcutter lived in the forest with his daughters Katrin and Else. Else was quarrelsome and lazy, Katrin was hard-working and good to people and animals. That is why the bear, the hare, the squirrel and the raven wanted to lead her to the forest house so that she could rescue the prince, who had been enchanted into an ancient man. Unfortunately, through unfortunate circumstances, the quarrelsome Else ended up in the forest house. Because she was lazy and unkind to the man and his animals, she was unable to redeem him and was punished. Only when the animals managed to escort Katrin into the forest house could everything be brought to a good end.

Kunz, the poor day laborer who is richly blessed with children, discovers the secret of the cave in the Simeliberg while collecting wood. Robbers keep their looted treasures there. Kunz takes some of it from time to time so that he can put a little more on the table for his family. Kunz's rich, stingy and suspicious neighbor discovers the secret of the treasure cave. His greed blinds him so much that he runs into his misfortune.

When the old miller dies, he leaves the mill to the eldest son, the donkey to the second eldest and a tomcat to the youngest. The tomcat wants to repay his master's friendship and help him. He has his boots made, gains access to the royal castle and catches the partridges the king wants. He impersonates the miller's boy Hans as "Count of the Mill", tricks him into wearing elegant clothes and brings him together with the king and the princess. He succeeds in overcoming the evil sorcerer and winning a magnificent castle for Hans. Hans finally becomes king and his cat first minister.

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.

A foray through the Sorbian customs of central Lusatia, made in the GDR. This classic work of documentary filmmaking covers the course of a year, in the process elaborating on village architecture, furniture, costumes, handicrafts, legends and oral traditions, as well as significant customs such as Zapust and the gift giving child.

This puppet animation film is based on Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. A 1936 symphonic fairy tale for children, the piece tells the story of Peter and a little bird who outwit and catch the dangerous wolf and take him to a zoo.

Puppet animated film based on a fairytale by the Brothers Grimm.

A tailor drives his three sons out of the house because he believes they have maliciously starved his beloved goat. The sons prove themselves abroad and return home with special gifts. Two of the brothers are cheated out of their wages on the way. The youngest brother exposes and punishes the thief, and everyone can enjoy the miraculous gifts.

For his mockery a witch transforms the pert boy Jacob into an ugly dwarf, but teaches him at the same time how to cook. Jacob quickly becomes a master of his trade and is named the prince's first cook. Only the mysterious herb "sneeze-with-passion" is unknown to him. Based on a fairy tale by Wilhelm Hauff.

There once was a poor miller who had no children but only three apprentices to work for him. The two older boys were lazy, mean and stupid, but youngest was hard-working, friendly, and cheerful. When the miller grows too old to work, he send the boys out into the world. Whoever brings back the most beautiful horse will inherit the mill.

Rooster, cat, dog and donkey become homeless in old age for various reasons, wander and sing together. This gruesomely funny singing may not be enough to become Bremen's town musicians, but it is enough to drive away evil robbers and spend a peaceful old age in their house.

A farmer and his wife had a girl in addition to their seven sons. An evil old woman turned the boys into ravens because she had not been invited to the christening. When the girl turned seven, she learned of the sad fate of her brothers and set out to redeem them. Her journey to the end of the world, to the sun, moon and stars, was adventurous and full of danger. But the girl persevered, found her brothers in the glass mountain, was able to rescue them and return with them to her parents' house.

An ancient fairy tale tells that Athanga created the world with animals and humans. Since the creatures soon began to quarrel with each other, he decided that from then on, everyone would only live for a short time and then die. This brought much suffering upon the people, but the power of laughter remained with them.

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.

Despite the mother goat's warning, the little goats fall for the wolf's tricks, open the door and all but one are eaten. The mother finds her last child, takes heart and approaches the sleeping wolf. She frees her children from its belly. The beast gets a load of stones sewn into its stomach and falls into the well while drinking.

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.

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.