Trnka’s earliest works already demonstrate his craftsmanship and artistry, moving from hand-drawn cartoons to surrealist interventions to the expressive beauty of his stop-motion beginnings. Drawing on ancient fables (Grandpa Planted a Beet; The Animals and the Brigands), a Chekhov story (Romance with Double Bass), and even a World War II–era, anti-Nazi urban legend (Springman and the SS), these shorts are both distinctive and distinctly Czech.