Ken Lidster's Balloon

Some stills from Ken Lidster's Balloon, a BAFTA-winning National Film & Television School film. It's an interesting combination of stop-motion and Plymptonesque drawn animation.

Ken Lidster and Jonathan Hills in Opéra imaginaire

Opéra imaginaire (also known as Animated Arias) is a series from 1993 which consists of animated shorts based on various operas. It is similar to the later Operavox, but while that series compresses operas into half-hour films Opéra imaginaire instead works with individual arias, covering two per ten-minute episode - although, in some cases, the actual animation summerises the storyline of the entire opera.

The series is a predominantly French production but has a few British contributions. The first of these is Ken Lidster's interpretation of Vesti la giubba, from Leoncavallo's Pacliacci.

And here's Jonathan Hills' take on Un bel di vedremo from Puccini's Madame Butterfly.