Les Bêtes

Directed by Michael Granberry

Runtime: 11:38

Country of Origin: United States

A mysterious rabbit with a set of magic keys summons a host of strange creatures to entertain a wicked king and his decadent court in this dark stop-motion animated fantasy inspired by the works of Ladislas Starevich.

About the production:
A four-year labor of love begun in 2020 as a "pandemic lockdown project" and completed in 2024, "Les Bêtes" was conceived to be a zero-budget, entirely recycled film in the style of a 1930's Ladislas Starevich animation. Even the stop-motion characters, all of which were originally constructed for other projects that never materialized, were repurposed after rotting away in storage for almost two decades.

Director Biography

Michael Granberry is a 3-time Emmy award-winning director and stop-motion animator whose work can be seen in the critically acclaimed series "Severance" directed by Ben Stiller, the Oscar-winning "Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio", Henry Selick's "Wendell & Wild", Charlie Kaufman's Oscar-nominated "Anomalisa", "Tales of Halloween", "Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy" and numerous other feature films, documentaries, TV shows, web series and music videos. His independent work, which he describes as "queer, garage-punk stop-motion slam poetry" uses recycled and repurposed materials to create strikingly unique visual stories.