As a kid, I could not wait for holidays — any holiday that could be marked by the animations of Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin. Frosty the Snowman, The Little Drummer Boy, The Easter Bunny is Comin' to Town . . .I and my siblings wrestled to get close-in floor seating in front of our old Panasonic TV.
So I was hit with an intense whiff of nostalgia as I watched The Sandman and the Lost Sand of Dreams directed by German filmmakers Sinem Sakaoglu and Jesper Moller. The film, part of the Seattle International Film Festival's Family Friendly film lineup, felt like a trip down memory lane for me and it will for my kids as well. My son happens to be obsessed with Rankin-Bass productions, so for him the film will be particularly enjoyable. For animation affianodos, The Sandman and the Lost Sand of Dreams is Germany's first stop-motion animated feature and required a team of more than 350 people and three years to create.
The style isn't the only nod to Rankin-Bass classics. The story itself feels oddly familiar. In many ways it's a re-envisioning of the American directors' 1964 Christmas classic Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer.
Rather than a deer with a bright shiny nose who saves the day, we have a sheep who is too feisty, funny and incompetent to be one of the sheep kids count to fall asleep. Where Rudolf gets kicked out of reindeer games, our sheep hero is told by the sleeping sheep coach:
"You don't have what it takes to bore people to sleep!"
The dilemma, rather than the possibility of waking to no Christmas presents due to bad weather, is the possibility that children will never again fall asleep and dream.
Why? Because the dream world is threatened when Shiverman steals The Sands of Dreams. The Sandman sends his trusty sheep sidekick to the real world to fetch a fearless captain who will assist them in saving the day.
The sheep accidentally recruits a sweet and timid little boy who happens to be playing dress-up as a captain. Despite the mix-up, the boy, sheep and sandman set out on an epic adventure to save Dreamworld, meeting a slew of zany characters along the way.
The show meanders a bit but for young kids especially, its rhythm, colors and content will captivate. Parents or older kids who have grown out of Rankin-Bass may find it a bit tedious. But for the rest of us, The Sandman and the Sand of Dreams gives us something to look forward to besides holidays – an animated film that addresses the everyday experience of dreaming which can be happily explored any day of the year.
