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The Three Inventors (Les trois inventeurs) is a 13-minute, 12-second French animated short directed and written by Michel Ocelot in 1980. Made from white cut paper, it follows inventors whose useful creations meet with fear and rejection. The film’s visible paper construction is central to how it tells that story.
What happens in The Three Inventors?
Animafest Zagreb’s catalogue describes a world made of white lace, where two great inventors and a little inventor build useful machines. The people around them dislike and fail to understand their difference. That contrast—between the practical value of invention and the community’s response to what feels unfamiliar—is the film’s documented premise.
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Make: describes the inventors as a family and recounts a scene in which the father pilots a bird-shaped hot-air balloon that frightened townspeople attack. That scene detail comes from the magazine’s account, rather than the festival catalogue synopsis.
How the cut-paper animation works
Ocelot makes the material itself conspicuous instead of hiding it behind the story. In a statement attributed to him and reproduced by Entrevues Belfort in French, he says he deliberately made the film in white paper, lit from the side so viewers could see that it was cut paper, and used cutting, folding and destroying the material as part of the film’s expression. The visible transformations let the paper do more than depict characters and machines: its fragility and capacity to change are part of the film’s visual language.
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Entrevues Belfort’s film page reproduces the French statement; Animafest Zagreb’s catalogue entry provides the film’s synopsis and production details.
Film details
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Original title | Les trois inventeurs |
| English title | The Three Inventors |
| Country and year | France, 1980 |
| Runtime | 13 minutes 12 seconds, according to the Animafest Zagreb catalogue |
| Director and screenplay | Michel Ocelot |
| Production | a.a.a. |
| Music | Christian Maire |
| Sound | Robert Cohen-Solal |
| Voice | Michel Elias |
| Distributor credit in the catalogue | Agence du court métrage |
MoMA screening record
The Museum of Modern Art included The Three Inventors in its October 23, 1980 program, “The Best of Zagreb and Ottawa ’80.” This is evidence of a scheduled program appearance, not evidence that the film won an award. MoMA’s October 1980 press release documents the program.
Where can you watch it?
The available catalogue record credits Agence du court métrage as distributor, but that historical credit does not establish present-day rights or viewing access. Current legal streaming, rental or purchase availability is not established here, so check current listings from legitimate film distributors and archives rather than assuming the film is on a particular service.
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Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
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