[on his short films] My first professional animated film
Island for 6,000 Alarm Clocks (1977) is a charming fairy tale by
Miloš Macourek. It is about an alarm clock that is so upset about being hit by humans when he's trying to wake them up, that he walks away, joined by about 5,999 other alarm clocks with a similar experience. They leave for an island where they can ring as long as they please. The message seemed wrong to the officials. The seven-minute-long film was not officially censored, but it was "put on the shelf," as we called it at the time. Still, I did get a chance to do another short animated film based on my own idea called
Hlavy (1980). It was criticized because of its egotism and individualism, almost its cosmopolitanism. But it was not censored, so it could be shown at the West Berlin Film Festival where it won the Golden Bear award.
