The Sandman (1991) Online

I saw this in one of the Spike & Mike festivals years ago & would say that this is probably my all time fave short. Very simple & short, but quite devastating. I have been trying to track this down on DVD..... The story of the creator is tragic, had he lived longer, I'm sure he would have rocked the animation world. The story is the classic, oft told tale of a kid afraid to go to bed because of what might lurk under his bed. It is told (if i remember correctly) without proper dialogue (I think there are mutterings by the characters, but not of an intelligible language). I assumed from the dark tone & detailed sets & figures that this one came from Eastern Europe, but was quite surprised to find it was not the case. Think Quay brothers, but with real characters in clay & in color.

This was a fantastic short film that I had the pleasure of seeing at the Mill Avenue Animation Festival in Tempe, AZ in 1992. This film is a great combination of spooky, cute, suspenseful, and freaky. While it reminds me of Tim Burton, it is more genuine. The story plays like an Edgar Allen Poe work, in that it is simple and to the point, while leaving a lasting mark. The animation is very Edward Gory, mixing cartoonish elements with the macabre. This piece is definitely on a different page than other animation, and I find myself thinking about it much more than should be demanded by a short film, and I would love the opportunity to see it again. Stop motion is usually very hit or miss for me, and in this case it is a dead on hit.

If it hadn't been for MONA LISA DESCENDING THE STAIRS, there's a very strong chance that THE SANDMAN would have won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film--it was that striking and groundbreaking. Paul Berry created a stop motion world very similar to his later projects such as THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE Christmas and JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH. While the animation is not quite as fluid here in this early film, you can clearly see that it led to these very successful Disney films. Sadly, Barry died at age 40 and his output was quite limited.

So what did I like about this film? Well, the character designs were amazing and the sets had a strange and twisted quality that was both charming and creepy. As for the story, I am probably in the minority here, it was really good up until the surprise ending. I thought it was too creepy and disturbing and knocked the film from a 9 to an 8--this is certainly NOT a film to show to young and impressionable kids. Of course, for an older crowd, they'll probably love the sick finale. Watch it and see for yourself.

This is an exceptional and brilliant film.

Along with Nightmare Before Christmas this short shows that stop-go-animation isn't just for kids. Dark, Haunting tale of a boy's journey up the stairs to bed.

Don't watch this before going to bed yourself!!

In a quiet town, in a dark house, a young boy playing with his drum is sent to bed at the top of the long stairs. With only a candle for light the boy is a bit scared and thinks he sees all many of things in the shadows and that every noise is sinister. As chance would have it though, he may not be wrong as, unseen by him, a character may be trying to get to him in his room with sinister motives – but is the Sandman real or is it all in the boy's overactive imagination.

Everyone knows that the Nightmare Before Christmas was a Tim Burton film, but not enough credit is given to the animator Paul Berry who was responsible for the unique Gothic feel given to the stop motion characters and the film as a whole and it is in this short film that he shows his worth. The story is a simple horror tale told in the style of a brief Gothic poem; the plot is simple and does keep the tension up and the ending is shocking in its simplicity – but parents will want to vet it before children watch it as it does end with some images of the sort that tend to linger in the mind and may cause some serious nightmares.

The animation is brilliant; although it lacks the budget (and hence gloss) of Nightmare but it is no less stylish and imaginative for it. Like I say, it is atmospheric and the ending is memorable and pretty creepy even for me. Since Berry's unfortunate death in 2001, we will not see any more work from him but with both this and Nightmare, he showed his eye, his talent and his imagination in a way that deserves and receives recognition. A great little short that everyone that watched Nightmare should make the effort to track down.

This was a magnificent animated short.

Considering the fact that in the recent years we had so many so-called "dark" versions of fairy tales, it was very good for me to watch a truly dark fairy tale like this.

It had a magnificent atmosphere and an impressive animation style, which has several elements in common with the works of Tim Burton. However, here the creepy visuals match perfectly well with an equally sinister story, which is able to turn a childhood fantasy into a horror tale, with a very cruel twist at the end. It also quite fascinating to watch from beginning to end, being able to achieve a genuine sensation of fear in every moment, a quality that sadly most of the recent horror films fail to achieve.

I first saw The Sandman during a screening of numerous short films from around the world on TV one night.

Haunting music introduces us to a shot of the moon, and a house, where a young boy is being sent to bed by his mother. The unique animation and direction captures the small child's fear as he walks up the creaky stairs and runs hurriedly down the corridor into his room.

The Sandman appears at the bottom of the stairs, a lanky figure with a huge, crooked head - not scary so much as BLOODY SPOOKY!

As the child is more and more frightened by the noises inside and outside his room, we see the Sandman approach, closer and closer until...

An amazingly captivating film which has great animation, direction and music - one of the most memorable and "effective" short films you will ever see - extremely sharp and shocking...

Wait 'til you see the end!

Late one night, a child is sent to bed by his mother and is visited by a strange, feathery, hook-nosed man who creeps into his darkened bedroom at night. To say anything more would be to spoil the nasty sting in this short's tail as The Sandman (1992) is a deliciously dark and amusing slice of animated horror.

That the style and execution of the piece resembles The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) is no accident as the director and animator Paul Berry worked on both this film and the later Tim Burton production James and the Giant Peach (1995). His death at the tragically young age of forty has robbed us of the chance of seeing his work as a fully mature artist. On the strength of this film alone I'm sure it would have been very special indeed.

I first head about this short from a friend who described a movie about "a bird man who comes into a child's bedroom at night" as the scariest thing that he had ever seen. Been a horror fan I had to track this down and I have finally seen it.

My reaction is WOW! This is very short but is so memorable it is unbelievable. The phrase short but sweet comes into mind. The plot involves a boy who is sent to bed by his mother. The boy is scared in the dark bedroom. Suddenly a funny looking man who has a head shaped like the crescent moon outside enters the house and... You wont get any more spoilers from me. This may be animation but it is certainly no children's film. In fact keep them well away from this if you don't want to be up all night comforting them from nightmares. Even though I knew what was coming as far as the ending is concerned it still packed a punch. The final shot is probably the most disturbing shot in animation ever. I was actually taken aback by just how chill inducing the ending is. The music was very well done. This film is all silent apart from the music and sounds, which tell the story. The Sandman himself is just scary as hell. For the uniformed "the sandman" is the traditional man who comes into people bedrooms and puts them to sleep. He can stay the hell out of my house that's for sure.

First chance you get to see this IT WOULD BE A FELONY TO PASS UP!

It has been a while since I saw this short, but it totally blew me away. If you ever have the opportunity to see this one, don't pass it up. If the only way you can see it is by purchasing it in an antoholgy, do it, you won't regret it!

at my school we were doing studies on the sandman and i wondered what it is because i never heard of it before. My teachers said it was an animation and i thought it was going to be a sweet, innocent film, BUT...... until i watched it i was shocked i thought to myself animations aren't meant to be like this! what freaked me out was the Gothic presentation the way he moved, the way the music was played in it all squeaky and high pitched like a crow squawking. but overall i think the way they made it was rather interesting the shape of the sandman's head like a moon, the way he moved everything! all i say is u should see it but if you get nightmares easily don't bother going and seeing it!

The Sandman is every child's nightmare- going to bed with a unknown horror lurking in the shadows. Paul Berry directed this animated screamer, and the characters are Tim Burton-esquire in the design. (Not surprising, as a few years later Paul worked on the Nightmare before Christmas with Tim) The film is very short, clocking in at a mere ten minutes, but it's disturbing enough to play a part in your nightmares. This film may seem to be aimed at children, as a young boy is the main character and it's a animation, but beware against showing it to any child below the age of about ten. Even that might be pushing it, as we watched this film in our Year 8 English class and we were still sufficiently creeped out.

The film starts off happily enough, just before the boy's bedtime. When he makes his way up to his bed, he enters the world of the Sandman.

The trippy '92 animation only adds to the atmosphere and the music is pure genius- a chord sounds every time he takes a step.

Several false alarms lead you to believe that maybe all is well and the Sandman will not be visiting that night. Unfortunately, not all stories have a happy ending.

A slight criticism- was it really necessary for the Sandman to dance? And the weird elbow thing- it made it more laughable which didn't set in with the mood of the film.

Therefore, I give this film 9/10.

I saw "The Sandman" at an animation festival several years ago, and just saw it again. Pretty creepy - and well done - short. Sort of like something that Tim Burton would do. I interpreted it as a look at the fear of going to bed that many children have. And if your opinion is that the final scene was too horrific for children, just remember that animation is simply another type of filmmaking. "The Sandman" shows that animation can be as dark as a typical horror movie.

Director Paul Berry died of a brain tumor in 2001. Too bad. I bet that he would've gone on to make a number of clever shorts just like this one. In the mean time, I recommend it. One of the cleverest shorts out there.

"The Sandman" is an American animated short film from 25 years ago and this one lives completely off the title character who is a villain that is also interesting enough to make a full feature film about him. I cannot believe this lost the Oscar to such a forgettable work like the MonaLisa movie which won that year. Anyway, "The Sandman" is a truly atmospheric watch and I recommend it to people who liked "Coraline". And yet, it somehow justifies the actions of the Sandman with the ending, which gives the movie also a good deal of emotional depth. E.T.A. Hoffmann wrote the short story that this is based on and I applaud him and filmmaker Paul Barry for not going with a happy ending. Nice soundtrack too. Now that I mentioned Berry, he is also an example of how reality is far more scary than the most gruesome movie can be. Tragic fate this man had. May he rest in peace and I am grateful for what he left us. "The Sandman" is a must see for horror film fans. Highly recommended.

Normally, the particular animation style of this short isn't something that I'd personally tend to go for at all, even as a kid I never liked "The Nightmare Before Christmas" whatsoever, but this was immediately just so visually fantastic and enchanting to me that those ten minutes just flew by and it turned out that my only real complaint is that it doesn't go on just that little bit longer! I love how the scale of everything is so stretched out and askew, especially the foreboding staircase and the child's bedroom with the crescent moon shining brightly through the window, it's so marvelously spooky and gives it a great, weird fable-like tone. There's something in the classically scary imagery and atmosphere that I think is very recognisable to anyone who as a child ever felt the sudden inexplicable need to run a bit faster to their bed and dive under the covers for instant guaranteed protection against imaginary terrors of the dark in the dead of night every time! The way the titular Sandman's every silent step and stealthy hop is played out perfectly to the piano keys is especially eerie and somehow also beautiful. His movements are instantly recognisable as any child's bogeyman. A lot of it is dark yet whimsical, but when it's revealed just what the Sandman actually snatched from the poor boy as the colour flashes the telltale red twice at the end of his little dance of nightmares, for me totally confirmed this short as a stone-cold horror! You can feel that it's building up to something, but it turns violent so quickly that you really won't see it coming. ~Food for the babies!~ The Sandman starts out looking like a freakish aristocratic man but seems to become more bird-like as it goes on, especially when he puts his arms back and does that silly buk-a-buk chicken motion! I think it's meant to subtly fill you in on the final twist. The closing image is so chilling. I thought the boy was actually dead and that was him with all the other lost blind souls forever. I'd say to go right ahead and show this to the little brats, just don't be surprised if demand to sleep with pistols under their pillows afterwards! Dark, twisted, and ultimately gruesome, but it sure does work. This is one mini work of grim art that is vastly deserving of your attention. Sleep tight now!

This short was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated short. There will be spoilers ahead:

The Sandman is a remarkably beautiful yet remarkably creepy take on the tale of the Sandman, a legendary figure purported to bring pleasant dreams by sprinkling sand in the eyes.

The Sandman here is much less benign/kind than the one of myth. Looking very much like a predatory bird, he enters a home and creeps up the steps to the room of a little boy who we have seen go up very reluctantly to be because, as most if not all children realize, night and darkness are filled with disturbing (and disturbed) things.

There are a number of nice little atmospheric bits, the characters are largely fully realized, the backgrounds are beautiful and this is an excellent short on many levels. It really isn't meant for very young children.

This Sandman isn't kid friendly and the ending is unsettling, to say the least. It's online for viewing and was on video tape at least once. It's well worth looking for. Most highly recommended.

For those who love the dark side of puppets, this is a must-see. One more ordinary night, a young boy is sent to bed with no more than a small candle to warn away the shadows that dance and play along the high walls. Will one odd-looking, despotic figure be able to turn this eerie night into something worse? While the film looks, at first glance, like something one would show to a child, it is far more. This is an ominous, foreboding piece, made effective with the fluent movement of the marionettes, well constructed scenery, expressive lighting, and perfectly suited music. Though this film is short, it leaves lasting prints on the mind through a fascinating, surrealistic twist on an old fairy tale.

Perhaps a little too scary for the younger folks, but very well done. No one says a word, but no one has to, as the music and actions tell the story better than any dialogue. Worthwhile.