a devil's ball, that is.
wladyslaw starewicz, born in what is now vilnius, lithuania (making him at once lithuanian, polish and russian) began his career a decade before walt disney began purveying the wonders of animation to the masses. although he insisted that his films were meant for children, it's hard to imagine what would result from exposing young ones to too much of the like of this.
for adults, his stop-motion films prefigure tim burton and are still technically impressive by today's standards.