Seeing A Series Of Unfortunate Events and the trailer for The Corpse Bride stirred up memories of an stop-motion animated short that I caught on television a few years ago (late 90's or possible 2000), and I was wondering if anyone could identify it for me.
The character design and animation looked similar to that of The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Corpse Bride. The animation was only a couple of minutes long, and I'm pretty sure that there wasn't any dialogue at all, only music and sound effects. The story had a little boy sitting by a fire, and then he was sent to bed. His bedroom was at the top of a long dark staircase and he only had a candle to light his way. When the boy finally got into bed and closed his eyes, a weird bird-man (who looked a lot like Jim Carrey's Count Olaf in aSoUE) flew into the room, approached the bed, and leaned in to stare at the boy's face. The boy, with his eyes still closed, kept tossing and turning, and every time that he rolled over, the bird-man would leap over the bed and stare him in the face again. When the boy finally opened his eyes, the bird-man jumped on him and pulled out the boy's eyeballs. Then the bird-man flew away to a nest on top of a mountain and fed the eyeballs to his babies. The final shot was of the eyeless boy, staggering around in the dark. He turned his empty sockets towards the camera and suddenly he was standing in a whole crowd of boys without eyes. That was the end.
Does anyone recognize this? I've been trying to remember the name for days, but I don't think I ever actually knew what it was. If anyone could give me the title, or, better yet, where I could find a copy of it either online or on DVD, then I would really appreciate it.
The character design and animation looked similar to that of The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Corpse Bride. The animation was only a couple of minutes long, and I'm pretty sure that there wasn't any dialogue at all, only music and sound effects. The story had a little boy sitting by a fire, and then he was sent to bed. His bedroom was at the top of a long dark staircase and he only had a candle to light his way. When the boy finally got into bed and closed his eyes, a weird bird-man (who looked a lot like Jim Carrey's Count Olaf in aSoUE) flew into the room, approached the bed, and leaned in to stare at the boy's face. The boy, with his eyes still closed, kept tossing and turning, and every time that he rolled over, the bird-man would leap over the bed and stare him in the face again. When the boy finally opened his eyes, the bird-man jumped on him and pulled out the boy's eyeballs. Then the bird-man flew away to a nest on top of a mountain and fed the eyeballs to his babies. The final shot was of the eyeless boy, staggering around in the dark. He turned his empty sockets towards the camera and suddenly he was standing in a whole crowd of boys without eyes. That was the end.
Does anyone recognize this? I've been trying to remember the name for days, but I don't think I ever actually knew what it was. If anyone could give me the title, or, better yet, where I could find a copy of it either online or on DVD, then I would really appreciate it.
