Watch The Bugs’ Christmas from 1913: A Cease Movement Movie Starring a Solid of Lifeless Bugs

Form Learn­er,

Will you do us the hon­or of settle for­ing our hol­i­day invi­ta­tion?

Carve 5 min­utes out of your hol­i­day sched­ule to spend time cel­e­brat­ing The Bugs’ Christ­mas, above.

In addi­tion to supply­ing temporary respite from the chaos of con­sumerism and mod­ern expec­ta­tions, this sim­ple stop-motion story from 1913 is sur­pris­ing­ly effec­tive at chas­ing away hol­i­day blues.

Not unhealthy for a brief with a sup­port­ing solid of lifeless bugs.

Ani­ma­tor Ladis­las Stare­vich started his cin­e­mat­ic manip­u­la­tions of insect automotive­cass­es ear­ly within the twentieth cen­tu­ry whereas serv­ing as Direc­tor of Kau­nas, Lithuania’s Muse­um of Nat­ur­al His­to­ry. He con­tin­ued the exper­i­ment after mov­ing to Moscow, the place he added such titles as Bugs’ Avi­a­tion Week, Amus­ing Scenes from the Lifetime of Bugs and well-known­ly, The Cameraman’s Revenge, a racy story of pas­sion and infi­deli­ty within the insect world.

The Bugs’ Christ­mas is way gen­tler.

Assume Frog­gy Went a Courtin’, or Miss Spider’s Wed­ding with an old-time Christ­mas spin.

Shades too of John­ny Gruelle’s Raggedy Ann and oth­er sto­ries the place­in toys wait for his or her human personal­ers to retire, so they could spring to life—although Starevich’s sleepy doll appears to have extra in com­mon with the Christ­mas tree’s absent personal­ers than the tiny Father Christ­mas orna­ment who clam­ors all the way down to par­ty al fres­co with the bugs.

Con­tem­po­rary com­pos­er Tom Peters beneath­scores the entire­some vin­tage motion—snowboarding, skat­ing, squab­bling over a Christ­mas cracker—with a mixture of tra­di­tion­al automotive­ols and orig­i­nal music per­shaped on ukulele, drum, and a six-string elec­tric bass with a 5‑octave vary.

And the second when Father Christ­mas con­jures fes­tive dec­o­ra­tions for a Char­lie Brown-ish tree is tru­ly magazine­i­cal. See in case your lit­tlest Hayao Miyaza­ki fan does­n’t agree.

Get pleasure from extra of Ladis­las Starevich’s stop-motion ouevre on YouTube.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

The Cameraman’s Revenge (1912): The Tru­ly Bizarre Ori­gin of Mod­ern Cease-Movement Ani­ma­tion

The Story of the Fox: Watch Ladis­las Starevich’s Ani­ma­tion of Goethe’s Nice Ger­man Folks­story (1937)

The His­to­ry of Cease-Movement Movies: 39 Movies, Span­ning 116 Years, Revis­it­ed in a 3‑Minute Video

Ayun Hal­l­i­day is an writer, illus­tra­tor, the­ater mak­er and Chief Pri­ma­tol­o­gist of the East Vil­lage Inky zine.