Zdeněk Miler

Infobox Celebrity
name=Zdeněk Miler


caption=
birth_date=Birth date and age|1921|2|21|mf=y
birth_place=Kladno, Czechoslovakia
occupation=Czech cartoonist, film director

Zdeněk Miler (February 21 1921) Czech animator and illustrator best known for his "Mole" ("Krtek" or "Krteček" in original) character and its adventures.

Early years

Miler was born in Kladno just west of Prague what was then Czechoslovakia. He became an animator partly because of the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. He took part in the demonstrations held because of the death of Jan Opletal that lead to the closing of universities and colleges.He was fortunate enough not to be sent to a Concentration camp. Instead he wound up working as an animator.

Miler enjoyed painting as a child. His hobby developed when he joined the national graphic school in Prague in 1936. He later studied at the College of Arts and Crafts (uměleckoprůmyslová škola Praha). In 1942 he began work at the cartoon studio Baťa in Zlín. There he learned the important practical skills relating to film production specializing in animated films. After the second World War, he started work at the cartoon company Bratři v triku and worked first as draughtsman then author and director. He later became the head of the company.

Krtek the Mole

Miler made about 70 films. In approximately 50 of them, the protagonist was his most famous creation, the small mole (Krtek in Czech). The idea for its creation came when he was commissioned to make an educational film for children in 1956. He was not happy with the script he was given. Since he was strongly influenced by Walt Disney films, he looked for an animal as the main character. Later, he said that the idea to use the mole as his main character came to him when he stumbled over a mole hill during a walk. The first film was titled “How the mole got his trousers” (“Jak krtek ke kalhotkám přišel”), which won a silver lion in Venice. In the beginning, the mole spoke. But Miler wanted his mole to be understood everywhere in the world so he decided to use his daughters as voice actors, reducing the speech to short non-figurative exclamations in order to express the mole's feelings and world perception. His daughters were also his test audience, who got to see the films first. Thus Miler could see whether his message resonated with children.

Krtek was a huge success in Czechoslovakia, Eastern Europe and Germany from the beginning and today the mole can be seen in over 80 countries.

Works

Krtek

* 1957
* Krtek a autíčko. 1963 (The mole and the car)
* Krtek a raketa. 1965 (The mole and the rocket)
* Krtek a tranzistor. 1968 (The mole and the radio)
* Krtek a zelená hvězda. 1969 (The mole and the green star)
* Krtek a žvýkačka. 1969 (The mole and the chewing gum)
* Krtek v zoo. 1969 (The mole in the zoo)
* Krtek zahradníkem. 1969 (The mole as gardners)
* Krtek a ježek. 1970 (The mole and the hedgehog)
* Krtek a lízátko. 1970 (The mole and the lollipop)
* Krtek a televizor. 1970 (The mole and the television)
* Krtek a paraplíčko. 1971 (The mole and the umbrella)
* Krtek malířem. 1972 (The mole as painters)
* Krtek a muzika. 1974 (The mole and the music)
* Krtek a telefon. 1974 (The mole and the telephone)
* Krtek a zápalky. 1974 (The mole and the matches)
* Krtek chemikem. 1974 (The mole as chemist)
* Krtek A more buldozer. 1975 (The mole and the bulldozer)
* Krtek A koberec. 1975 (The mole and the carpet)
* Krtek A vejce. 1975 (The mole and the egg)
* Krtek fotografem. 1975 (The mole as a photographer)
* Krtek hodinářem. 1975 (The mole as watchmaker)
* Krtek v poušti. 1975 (The mole in the desert)
* Krtek o vánocích. 1975 (The mole to Christmas)
* Krtek a karneval. 1976 (The mole in the carnival)
* Krtek ve městě. 1982 (The mole in the city)
* Krtek ve snu. 1984 (The mole in the snow)
* Krtek a medicína. 1987 (The mole and the medicine)
* Krtek filmová hvězda. 1988 (The mole as a film star)
* Krtek a orel. 1992 (The mole and the eagle)
* Krtek a hodiny. 1994 (The mole and the clock)
* Krtek a kachničky. 1995 (The mole and the small duck)
* Krtek a kamarádi. 1995 (The mole and its friends)
* Krtek a oslava. 1995 (The mole and the celebration)
* Krtek a robot. 1995 (The mole and the robot)
* Krtek a uhlí. 1995 (The mole and the coal)
* Krtek a víkend. 1995 (The mole and the weekend)
* Krtek a houby. 1997 (The mole and the mushrooms)
* Krtek a maminka. 1997 (The mole and the mummy)
* Krtek a metro. 1997 (The mole and the underground)
* Krtek a myška. 1997 (The mole and the mouse)
* Krtek a sněhulák. 1997 (The mole and the snowman)
* Krtek a zajíček. 1997 (The mole and the small hare)
* Krtek a pramen. 1999 (The mole and the source)
* Krtek a šťoura. 1999 (The mole and the grumbler)
* Krtek a flétna. 1999 (The mole and the flute)
* Krtek a vlaštovka. 2000 (The mole and the swallow)
* Krtek a rybka. 2000 (The mole and the small fish)
* Krtek a žabka. 2002 (The Mole and the small frog)

Other films

* 1948 after Jiří Wolker
* Měsíční pohádka. 1958 (A moon history)
* Jak šte(n(átko dostalo chut( well med. 1960 (As the puppy got appetite on honey)
* O štěňátku. 1960 (Over the small puppy)
* Jak štěňátko chtělo malé pejsky. 1960 (As the puppy wanted small dogs)
* Jak sluníčko vrátilo štěňátku vodu. 1960 (As the sun returned its water to the small puppy)
* O nejbohatším vrabci ve světě. 1961 (Over the richest Raben of the world)
* Rudá stopa. 1963 (The red trace)
* O Čtverečkovi a Trojúhelníčkovi. 1963 (Over the small square and the small triangle)
* Sametka. 1967 (The Samtkropfband)
* Romance helgolandská. 1977 (A Helgoländi romance)
* Cvrček a stroj. 1977 (The cricket and the machine)
* Cvrček a pavouk. 1977 (The cricket and the spider)
* Cvrček a housličky. 1978 (The cricket and the violin)
* Cvrček a slepice. 1978 (The cricket and the chicken)
* Cvrček a pila. 1978 (The cricket and the saw)
* Cvrček a bombardón. 1978 (The cricket and the Bombardon)
* Cvrček a basa. 1979 (The cricket and the retort bass)

External links

* [http://www.kratkyfilm.cz/engl/index.html Krátký Film Praha]
* [http://www.kratkyfilm.com/catalogue/html/317.htm All films by Krátký Film Praha]