Dream Land Express (1982)

This is quite a beautifully crafted animation that takes us, metaphorically but quite possibly metaphysically too, on a journey from the mind’s eye of a young child’s imagination. It uses the concept of a train journey to offer us some sort of anchor for our travels, but in the main these are abstract creations that sometimes present imagery that seem to scare more than anything else. Shades of Edvard Munch are never far away from the vividly shaded, often hand-drawn, characters which are mingled with some live-action offering something altogether surreal framed only by the confines of this child’s seemingly endless and frightened subconscious. The last sequence rather sums it up as some sort of assessment of a circle of life, or many be a continuation of being - or maybe just some fun with the evolutionary food chain, I don’t know, but it’s darkness punctuated by the occasional glimmer of sunlight works effectively and occasionally quite menacingly too. It’s not the most coherent piece of film you’ll ever see, but it is certainly worth a quarter of an hour.