A landmark of Czech animation is reaching new audiences this fall with the U.S. Blu-ray release of The Pied Piper (Krysař), Jiří Barta’s 1986 stop-motion feature, alongside a collection of the director’s short films. The two-disc set, issued by L.A.-based distributor Deaf Crocodile, will be available starting Sept. 16, 2025 as part of a limited deluxe edition.
The release highlights Barta’s singular vision in both feature-length and short-form animation, combining his internationally acclaimed allegorical work with experimental films produced between 1978 and 1989. It also continues a wave of restored Czech classics reaching overseas viewers in high-definition formats. The new edition “remains a vivid reminder of just how extraordinary the world of Czech animation can be,” reviewer Stephen Bjork writes for The Digital Bits.
Restoring a dark Czech classic
Barta’s The Pied Piper, more accurately translated as The Ratcatcher, was produced by Krátký Film Praha and Studio Jiřího Trnky during the late Communist era. Inspired by Viktor Dyk’s 1915 novella Krysař, the film offered a bleaker retelling of the German legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Rather than a brightly clad figure, Barta’s ratcatcher is envisioned as a foreboding harbinger of death, set against a town consumed by greed and corruption.
Cinematographers Vladimír Malík and Ivan Vit shot the film on 35mm, with a stylized visual design echoing German Expressionist cinema. Barta’s choice to forgo dialogue, using instead an invented nonsense language, further emphasized the story’s allegorical nature. Its haunting score, composed by Michael Kocáb of the Czech rock band Pražský výběr, underscored the atmosphere of unease.
The 2025 Blu-ray edition stems from a 2023 restoration carried out in collaboration with Krátký Film Praha. The original 35mm negative was scanned in Prague by Jan Vanek at Pragafilm, with digital restoration overseen by Craig Rogers under the supervision of Deaf Crocodile’s Dennis Bartok. The disc presents the film in its original 1.37:1 aspect ratio with DTS-HD Master Audio and optional English subtitles for on-screen text.
Alongside the feature, the set includes archival material such as the vintage documentary Chronicle of The Pied Piper and a commentary track with programmer Irena Kovarova and critic Peter Hames, who situate the film within Czech animation history. A new 51-minute interview with Barta, translated into English, provides insight into his influences and creative process.
Barta’s shorts collected in full
The most significant addition to this new edition is a second disc compiling six of Barta’s short films, all newly restored. Among them are Riddles for a Candy (1978), his debut, and The Vanished World of Gloves (1982), a festival favorite that used animated gloves to reenact milestones in cinema history. Other works include Disc Jockey (1980), The Design (1981), A Ballad About Green Wood (1983), The Last Theft (1987), and The Club of the Laid Off (1989).
Together, these shorts chart Barta’s evolution from whimsical 2D experiments to darker, expressionist-influenced narratives that paralleled the tone of The Pied Piper. The collection also features a new 76-minute interview with the director, as well as Pushed to the Margins, a visual essay by Kovarova and Hames examining his style within the broader context of Czech animation.
The Blu-ray set is presented as a limited deluxe Edition of 2,000 units, housed in a slipcase with new artwork and accompanied by a 60-page booklet featuring essays by scholars Jonathan Owen, Walter Chaw, and Irena Kovarova. A standard edition without the booklet and packaging will also be available.
For international audiences, the release provides the most comprehensive survey to date of Barta’s output from 1978 to 1989, offering a window into one of Czech cinema’s most distinctive animators. With his long-gestating project The Golem still in development, the collection underscores Barta’s continuing relevance nearly four decades after his most famous work premiered.
