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The Orchard

Parental guidance recommended for younger viewers 1995 Short film
  • Children
  • Drama
  • Adaptation
  • Animation

One morning, as kids are stealing apples from an old man’s orchard high above a seaside town, an earthquake hits. No one is hurt, and the townsfolk are non-plussed, but the old man is agitated: he alone is aware of the imminent tsunami, and tries to warn the village. Based on a classic Japanese fable, this near wordless short film was masterminded by animator Bob Stenhouse, who had been nominated for an Academy Award the previous decade thanks to his pioneer tale The Frog, The Dog and The Devil. Fans of Stenhouse's work will recognise his lush, luminous hand-drawn style.

Key Cast & Crew

KR
Kit Rollings
Sound Design
JB
John Boswell
Sound Mix

Related images

coded.jpg
A hand-drawn frame from The Orchard
Drawn by Bob Stenhouse
ORCH_12.jpg
A hand-drawn frame by Bob Stenhouse from his 1995 animated short The Orchard
Drawn by Bob Stenhouse
Orchard-Gallery-2.jpg
A promotional image from Bob Stenhouse's animated short The Orchard (1995). A decade earlier, when Stenhouse and Orchard producer Hugh Macdonald both worked at the National Film Unit, they were nominated for an Oscar for The Frog, the Dog and the Devil (1986).
Supplied by the NZ Film Commission, drawn by Bob Stenhouse
Orchard-Gallery-3.jpg
An image from The Orchard.
Kindly supplied by the NZ Film Commission, drawn by Bob Stenhouse.