A graduate of Prague’s School of Arts and Crafts, in 1936 he created a puppet theater, which was disbanded after the outbreak of WWII. During the war he designed stage sets and illustrated children’s books. In 1945 he set up an animation unit with several collaborators at the Prague film studio; they called the unit “Trick Brothers.” Trnka specialized in puppet animation, a traditional Czech art form, of which he became the undisputed master. He also created animated cartoons, but it was his puppet animation that made him an internationally recognized artist and the winner of film festival awards at Venice and elsewhere. He wrote the scripts for most of his own films.
Jiřà Trnka Biography / Wiki
| Name | Jiřà Trnka |
| Also Know | Jiřà Trnka |
| Gender | Male |
| Known For | Directing |
| Place of Birth | Plzeň, Rakousko-Uhersko |
| Date of Birth | 1912-02-24 |
| Age(as in 2022) | 57 |
| Deathday | 1969-12-30 |
Jiřà Trnka Acting Movies
| Movie Name | Character | Release Date | Overview |
| Jiřà Trnka | Himself | 1967-01-26 | Documentary about Jirà Trnka and how he works…. |
| Jirà Trnka: Puppet Animation Master | 1999-01-01 | Short documentary on “the Walt Disney of Eastern Europe”, Czech puppet animation director Jirà Trnka…. | |
| Loutky JiÅ™Ãho Trnky | 1956-01-30 | … | |
| SkuteÄnost Noci svatojánské | Self | 1959-07-24 | … |
| To jsou BratÅ™i v triku | Himself | 1957-01-01 | … |
Jiřà Trnka Directing Movies
| Movie Name | Job | Release Date | Overview |
| A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Director | 1959-09-25 | The first puppet kinescope in the world. It is based on the famous poetic comedy by William Shakespeare. Three worlds meet in this story: the noble wo… |
| Two Little Frosts | Director | 1955-04-22 | Two mischievous frost spirits make things chilly for a pair of travelers in this wintry comic folktale…. |
| Cybernetic Grandma | Director | 1963-02-15 | Trnka’s sci-fi vision of the future in which machines and robots try to substitute themselves into the most beautiful human relationships. A cyberne… |
| Story of the Bass Cello | Director | 1949-01-01 | “Román s basou” is another short by master a stop-motion puppet-animator Jiri Trnka. The story is based on Anton Chekhovs story “Roman s Kontrabasom”… |
| The Devil’s Mill | Director | 1949-01-01 | A barrel organ grinder meets the devil on a mysterious moonlit night in this haunted-house fable, which showcases Trnka’s atmospheric use of sound t… |
| Archangel Gabriel and Mistress Goose | Director | 1965-03-19 | Taken from Boccaccio’s Decameron, this lovely puppet film tells the bawdy story of the beautiful young Venetian lady who confesses her sinful passion … |
| Song of the Prairie | Director | 1949-01-01 | An animated singing western short in which a cowboy takes on the villain to save his beloved…. |
| The Hurvinek Circus | Director | 1955-09-02 | Hurvinek cannot go to a circus because he injured himself when sliding down the stair rail. He daydreams that he is an acrobat riding a scooter and an… |
| The Emperor’s Nightingale | Director | 1949-04-15 | Adaptation of a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, about an emperor who prefers the tinkling of a bejeweled mechanical bird to the song of a real … |
| The Hand | Director | 1965-01-01 | A happy little potter is approached by a huge hand which wants him to sculpt its statue. The potter refuses, wanting nothing more than to be left alon… |
| Springman and the SS | Director | 1946-12-20 | The first animated picture made by Jiřà Trnka for adults. It is a comic story of a legendary chimney-cleaner who, with the help of a spring from an … |
| Passion | Director | 1961-01-01 | The passion for high speed can nowadays almost be seen in the new-born. The film shows that such passion, if not controlled, is self-destructing and e… |
| Grandpa Planted a Beet | Director | 1945-01-01 | The first Czech cartoon based on a fairy-tale about grandpa, grandma, their granddaughter, dog and cat who all wanted to pull a big beet out from the … |
| The Animals and the Brigands | Director | 1947-09-12 | The second cartoon by Jiri Trnka that was a sensation at the festival in Cannes in 1946 when it defeated the world animation elite of the time. It is … |
| Old Czech Legends | Director | 1953-09-11 | A monumental piece of art bringing the heroes of the ancient Czech myths back to life. The picture consists of seven parts: Cech the Forefather, Bivoj… |
| The Golden Fish | Director | 1951-01-01 | A poor fisherman catches the golden fish that promises him to fulfil three wishes if he sets her free again. He does so and the fish fulfils two of hi… |
| Prince Bayaya | Director | 1951-01-26 | Bayaya, a young peasant, protected by the spirit of his dead mother, arrives at the castle of the King, where he entertains his three daughters. He so… |
| The Good Soldier Schweik | Director | 1956-10-04 | Adapting Jaroslav Hasek’s raucous satirical novel, and also bringing Josef Lada’s equally famous illustrations to garrulous puppet life, posed Trnka o… |
| The Czech Year | Director | 1947-12-13 | The first full-length puppet film made by Jiri Trnka. Like the painter Ales who illustrated the national songs, Trnka depicts the traditional customs … |
| The Gift | Director | 1947-09-12 | Trnka reached new heights of modernist abstraction with this innovative, surrealist mini-masterwork, which critic Jean-Pierre Coursodon praised as the… |
| The Merry Circus | Director | 1951-01-01 | Trnka brings to life a surrealist circus of tightrope-walking fish, musical monkeys, balancing bears, and high-flying acrobatics in this whimsical fea… |
| How the Old Man Traded It All Away | Director | 1954-12-31 | Folk art–like hand-drawn stills illustrate this sweetly simple pastoral fable, in which a peasant comes into possession of a small fortune—but rea… |
| Kutasek and Kutilka | Director | 1954-12-31 | How do you wake up a sleeping puppet? Made by Trnka in collaboration with actor and puppeteer Josef Pehr, this winsome mix of live action and puppet p… |
| Why UNESCO? | Director | 1959-01-01 | The cartoon film sets out to justify the existence of UNESCO as an instrument for world peace…. |
| Osudy dobrého vojáka Å vejka – Å vejkova budÄ›jovická anabase | Director | 1956-09-21 | … |
| Osudy dobrého vojáka Å vejka – Å vejkovy nehody ve vlaku | Director | 1955-01-01 | … |
| Osudy dobrého vojáka Å vejka – Z Hatvanu na hranice HaliÄe | Director | 1954-07-11 | … |
Writing
| Movie Name | Job | Release Date | Overview |
| Why UNESCO? | Screenplay | 1959-01-01 | The cartoon film sets out to justify the existence of UNESCO as an instrument for world peace…. |
| The Good Soldier Schweik | Writer | 1956-10-04 | Adapting Jaroslav Hasek’s raucous satirical novel, and also bringing Josef Lada’s equally famous illustrations to garrulous puppet life, posed Trnka o… |
| Old Czech Legends | Screenplay | 1953-09-11 | A monumental piece of art bringing the heroes of the ancient Czech myths back to life. The picture consists of seven parts: Cech the Forefather, Bivoj… |
| Old Czech Legends | Story | 1953-09-11 | A monumental piece of art bringing the heroes of the ancient Czech myths back to life. The picture consists of seven parts: Cech the Forefather, Bivoj… |
| Prince Bayaya | Screenplay | 1951-01-26 | Bayaya, a young peasant, protected by the spirit of his dead mother, arrives at the castle of the King, where he entertains his three daughters. He so… |
| Archangel Gabriel and Mistress Goose | Story | 1965-03-19 | Taken from Boccaccio’s Decameron, this lovely puppet film tells the bawdy story of the beautiful young Venetian lady who confesses her sinful passion … |
| Archangel Gabriel and Mistress Goose | Screenplay | 1965-03-19 | Taken from Boccaccio’s Decameron, this lovely puppet film tells the bawdy story of the beautiful young Venetian lady who confesses her sinful passion … |
| Song of the Prairie | Screenplay | 1949-01-01 | An animated singing western short in which a cowboy takes on the villain to save his beloved…. |
| The Hurvinek Circus | Screenplay | 1955-09-02 | Hurvinek cannot go to a circus because he injured himself when sliding down the stair rail. He daydreams that he is an acrobat riding a scooter and an… |
| The Emperor’s Nightingale | Screenplay | 1949-04-15 | Adaptation of a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, about an emperor who prefers the tinkling of a bejeweled mechanical bird to the song of a real … |
| The Devil’s Mill | Story | 1949-01-01 | A barrel organ grinder meets the devil on a mysterious moonlit night in this haunted-house fable, which showcases Trnka’s atmospheric use of sound t… |
| The Devil’s Mill | Screenplay | 1949-01-01 | A barrel organ grinder meets the devil on a mysterious moonlit night in this haunted-house fable, which showcases Trnka’s atmospheric use of sound t… |
| Two Little Frosts | Story | 1955-04-22 | Two mischievous frost spirits make things chilly for a pair of travelers in this wintry comic folktale…. |
| Two Little Frosts | Screenplay | 1955-04-22 | Two mischievous frost spirits make things chilly for a pair of travelers in this wintry comic folktale…. |
| How the Old Man Traded It All Away | Screenplay | 1954-12-31 | Folk art–like hand-drawn stills illustrate this sweetly simple pastoral fable, in which a peasant comes into possession of a small fortune—but rea… |
| Kutasek and Kutilka | Screenplay | 1954-12-31 | How do you wake up a sleeping puppet? Made by Trnka in collaboration with actor and puppeteer Josef Pehr, this winsome mix of live action and puppet p… |
| Cybernetic Grandma | Screenplay | 1963-02-15 | Trnka’s sci-fi vision of the future in which machines and robots try to substitute themselves into the most beautiful human relationships. A cyberne… |
| The Golden Fish | Screenplay | 1951-01-01 | A poor fisherman catches the golden fish that promises him to fulfil three wishes if he sets her free again. He does so and the fish fulfils two of hi… |
| Why UNESCO? | Idea | 1959-01-01 | The cartoon film sets out to justify the existence of UNESCO as an instrument for world peace…. |
| Story of the Bass Cello | Screenplay | 1949-01-01 | “Román s basou” is another short by master a stop-motion puppet-animator Jiri Trnka. The story is based on Anton Chekhovs story “Roman s Kontrabasom”… |
| Story of the Bass Cello | Story | 1949-01-01 | “Román s basou” is another short by master a stop-motion puppet-animator Jiri Trnka. The story is based on Anton Chekhovs story “Roman s Kontrabasom”… |
| The Hand | Story | 1965-01-01 | A happy little potter is approached by a huge hand which wants him to sculpt its statue. The potter refuses, wanting nothing more than to be left alon… |
| The Hand | Screenplay | 1965-01-01 | A happy little potter is approached by a huge hand which wants him to sculpt its statue. The potter refuses, wanting nothing more than to be left alon… |
| A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Screenplay | 1959-09-25 | The first puppet kinescope in the world. It is based on the famous poetic comedy by William Shakespeare. Three worlds meet in this story: the noble wo… |
| Passion | Story | 1961-01-01 | The passion for high speed can nowadays almost be seen in the new-born. The film shows that such passion, if not controlled, is self-destructing and e… |
| Passion | Screenplay | 1961-01-01 | The passion for high speed can nowadays almost be seen in the new-born. The film shows that such passion, if not controlled, is self-destructing and e… |
| The Gift | Story | 1947-09-12 | Trnka reached new heights of modernist abstraction with this innovative, surrealist mini-masterwork, which critic Jean-Pierre Coursodon praised as the… |
| The Gift | Screenplay | 1947-09-12 | Trnka reached new heights of modernist abstraction with this innovative, surrealist mini-masterwork, which critic Jean-Pierre Coursodon praised as the… |
| LiÅ¡ka a džbán | Screenplay | 1947-09-12 | … |
| Springman and the SS | Screenplay | 1946-12-20 | The first animated picture made by Jiřà Trnka for adults. It is a comic story of a legendary chimney-cleaner who, with the help of a spring from an … |
| The Czech Year | Story | 1947-12-13 | The first full-length puppet film made by Jiri Trnka. Like the painter Ales who illustrated the national songs, Trnka depicts the traditional customs … |
| The Czech Year | Screenplay | 1947-12-13 | The first full-length puppet film made by Jiri Trnka. Like the painter Ales who illustrated the national songs, Trnka depicts the traditional customs … |
| Grandpa Planted a Beet | Story | 1945-01-01 | The first Czech cartoon based on a fairy-tale about grandpa, grandma, their granddaughter, dog and cat who all wanted to pull a big beet out from the … |
| Grandpa Planted a Beet | Screenplay | 1945-01-01 | The first Czech cartoon based on a fairy-tale about grandpa, grandma, their granddaughter, dog and cat who all wanted to pull a big beet out from the … |
| The Animals and the Brigands | Story | 1947-09-12 | The second cartoon by Jiri Trnka that was a sensation at the festival in Cannes in 1946 when it defeated the world animation elite of the time. It is … |
| The Animals and the Brigands | Screenplay | 1947-09-12 | The second cartoon by Jiri Trnka that was a sensation at the festival in Cannes in 1946 when it defeated the world animation elite of the time. It is … |
| The Merry Circus | Story | 1951-01-01 | Trnka brings to life a surrealist circus of tightrope-walking fish, musical monkeys, balancing bears, and high-flying acrobatics in this whimsical fea… |
| The Merry Circus | Screenplay | 1951-01-01 | Trnka brings to life a surrealist circus of tightrope-walking fish, musical monkeys, balancing bears, and high-flying acrobatics in this whimsical fea… |
| Osudy dobrého vojáka Å vejka – Å vejkova budÄ›jovická anabase | Screenplay | 1956-09-21 | … |
| Osudy dobrého vojáka Å vejka – Å vejkovy nehody ve vlaku | Screenplay | 1955-01-01 | … |
| Osudy dobrého vojáka Å vejka – Z Hatvanu na hranice HaliÄe | Screenplay | 1954-07-11 | … |
| Book | … | ||
Other Info
| Movie Name | Job | Release Date | Overview |
| Joy of Love | Art Direction | 1966-01-01 | This melancholy piece about the metamorphoses of love and the eternal dissatisfaction of human beings with what they have was inspired by the lyrics o… |
| The Merry Circus | Graphic Designer | 1951-01-01 | Trnka brings to life a surrealist circus of tightrope-walking fish, musical monkeys, balancing bears, and high-flying acrobatics in this whimsical fea… |
| Archangel Gabriel and Mistress Goose | Art Direction | 1965-03-19 | Taken from Boccaccio’s Decameron, this lovely puppet film tells the bawdy story of the beautiful young Venetian lady who confesses her sinful passion … |
| Prince Bayaya | Art Direction | 1951-01-26 | Bayaya, a young peasant, protected by the spirit of his dead mother, arrives at the castle of the King, where he entertains his three daughters. He so… |
| The Hurvinek Circus | Art Designer | 1955-09-02 | Hurvinek cannot go to a circus because he injured himself when sliding down the stair rail. He daydreams that he is an acrobat riding a scooter and an… |
| Cybernetic Grandma | Art Direction | 1963-02-15 | Trnka’s sci-fi vision of the future in which machines and robots try to substitute themselves into the most beautiful human relationships. A cyberne… |
| ParaplÃÄko | Art Designer | 1957-09-13 | No overview found…. |
| Story of the Bass Cello | Art Direction | 1949-01-01 | “Román s basou” is another short by master a stop-motion puppet-animator Jiri Trnka. The story is based on Anton Chekhovs story “Roman s Kontrabasom”… |
| The Hand | Art Direction | 1965-01-01 | A happy little potter is approached by a huge hand which wants him to sculpt its statue. The potter refuses, wanting nothing more than to be left alon… |
| The Czech Year | Art Direction | 1947-12-13 | The first full-length puppet film made by Jiri Trnka. Like the painter Ales who illustrated the national songs, Trnka depicts the traditional customs … |
| Grandpa Planted a Beet | Art Direction | 1945-01-01 | The first Czech cartoon based on a fairy-tale about grandpa, grandma, their granddaughter, dog and cat who all wanted to pull a big beet out from the … |
| The Gift | Art Designer | 1947-09-12 | Trnka reached new heights of modernist abstraction with this innovative, surrealist mini-masterwork, which critic Jean-Pierre Coursodon praised as the… |
| Springman and the SS | Art Designer | 1946-12-20 | The first animated picture made by Jiřà Trnka for adults. It is a comic story of a legendary chimney-cleaner who, with the help of a spring from an … |
| The Animals and the Brigands | Art Designer | 1947-09-12 | The second cartoon by Jiri Trnka that was a sensation at the festival in Cannes in 1946 when it defeated the world animation elite of the time. It is … |
| Springman and the SS | Supervising Art Director | 1946-12-20 | The first animated picture made by Jiřà Trnka for adults. It is a comic story of a legendary chimney-cleaner who, with the help of a spring from an … |
| The Gift | Supervising Art Director | 1947-09-12 | Trnka reached new heights of modernist abstraction with this innovative, surrealist mini-masterwork, which critic Jean-Pierre Coursodon praised as the… |
| The Animals and the Brigands | Supervising Art Director | 1947-09-12 | The second cartoon by Jiri Trnka that was a sensation at the festival in Cannes in 1946 when it defeated the world animation elite of the time. It is … |
| Capek’s Tales | Art Designer | 1947-09-19 | Five crime stories connected by the narration of police superintendent Bartosek…. |
| LiÅ¡ka a džbán | Art Designer | 1947-09-12 | … |
| LiÅ¡ka a džbán | Supervising Art Director | 1947-09-12 | … |
| MÃÅ¡a KuliÄka | Art Designer | 1947-09-12 | … |
| The Emperor’s Nightingale | Art Designer | 1949-04-15 | Adaptation of a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, about an emperor who prefers the tinkling of a bejeweled mechanical bird to the song of a real … |
| Song of the Prairie | Art Designer | 1949-01-01 | An animated singing western short in which a cowboy takes on the villain to save his beloved…. |
| The Golden Fish | Art Designer | 1951-01-01 | A poor fisherman catches the golden fish that promises him to fulfil three wishes if he sets her free again. He does so and the fish fulfils two of hi… |
| The Gingerbread House | Art Designer | 1951-08-31 | … |
| Old Czech Legends | Art Designer | 1953-09-11 | A monumental piece of art bringing the heroes of the ancient Czech myths back to life. The picture consists of seven parts: Cech the Forefather, Bivoj… |
| How the Old Man Traded It All Away | Art Designer | 1954-12-31 | Folk art–like hand-drawn stills illustrate this sweetly simple pastoral fable, in which a peasant comes into possession of a small fortune—but rea… |
| A Drop Too Much | Art Designer | 1954-01-01 | No overview found…. |
| Once Upon a Time, There Was a King… | Art Designer | 1955-02-11 | A selfish self-centered widowed ruler, barely tolerated by his subjects and called appropriately enough, ‘King Myself, First’ asks his three daughters… |
| Two Little Frosts | Art Designer | 1955-04-22 | Two mischievous frost spirits make things chilly for a pair of travelers in this wintry comic folktale…. |
| Jan Hus | Art Designer | 1955-04-29 | Jan Hus is a 1954 Czechoslovak film directed by Otakar Vávra. It is the first part of the “Hussite Revolutionary Trilogy”, one of the most famous wor… |
| Kutasek and Kutilka | Art Designer | 1954-12-31 | How do you wake up a sleeping puppet? Made by Trnka in collaboration with actor and puppeteer Josef Pehr, this winsome mix of live action and puppet p… |
| Osudy dobrého vojáka Å vejka – Å vejkova budÄ›jovická anabase | Art Designer | 1956-09-21 | … |
| Osudy dobrého vojáka Å vejka – Å vejkovy nehody ve vlaku | Art Designer | 1955-01-01 | … |
| Osudy dobrého vojáka Å vejka – Z Hatvanu na hranice HaliÄe | Art Designer | 1954-07-11 | … |
| Spejbl na stopÄ› | Art Designer | 1956-11-30 | … |
| The Devil’s Mill | Art Designer | 1949-01-01 | A barrel organ grinder meets the devil on a mysterious moonlit night in this haunted-house fable, which showcases Trnka’s atmospheric use of sound t… |
| Why UNESCO? | Art Designer | 1959-01-01 | The cartoon film sets out to justify the existence of UNESCO as an instrument for world peace…. |
| Bomb Mania | Art Designer | 1959-01-01 | … |
| A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Art Designer | 1959-09-25 | The first puppet kinescope in the world. It is based on the famous poetic comedy by William Shakespeare. Three worlds meet in this story: the noble wo… |
| The Midnight Adventure | Art Designer | 1960-01-01 | An old woodblock train meets its shiny new electric replacement one Christmas Eve in this glowingly nostalgic stop-motion toy story, directed by Breti… |
| Passion | Art Designer | 1961-01-01 | The passion for high speed can nowadays almost be seen in the new-born. The film shows that such passion, if not controlled, is self-destructing and e… |
| Zlý jelen | Art Direction | 1962-12-24 | … |
| Lemonade Joe | Art Designer | 1964-10-16 | A satire of the Great American Way, with Lemonade Joe a “clean living” gunfighter who drinks only Kola-Loca Lemonade and convinces everyone else in to… |
| The Emperor and the Golem | Costume Design | 1952-01-04 | The Emperor’s mismanagement of his country is provoking some in his court to plot to overthrow him. He feels successful, at least, when he discovers … |
| Against All | Costume Design | 1957-10-04 | After the battle of Sudoměř the Hussite teaching spreads through the whole country and people start leaving their homes to help build the fortificat… |
| Jan Hus | Costume Design | 1955-04-29 | Jan Hus is a 1954 Czechoslovak film directed by Otakar Vávra. It is the first part of the “Hussite Revolutionary Trilogy”, one of the most famous wor… |
| Jan Žižka | Costume Design | 1956-02-05 | The second part of the revolutionary Hussite trilogy takes place in the years 1419-1420…. |
| The Emperor’s Nightingale | Editor | 1949-04-15 | Adaptation of a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, about an emperor who prefers the tinkling of a bejeweled mechanical bird to the song of a real … |
| The Czech Year | Editor | 1947-12-13 | The first full-length puppet film made by Jiri Trnka. Like the painter Ales who illustrated the national songs, Trnka depicts the traditional customs … |
Credit: TMDB
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