Das Kind und der Zauberspuk / L’enfant et les sortilèges

Storyline

On a beautiful sunny afternoon, the child is sitting in the living room and is supposed to do the homework. But the child doesn’t want to. Petulant, he insults his mother, who then sadly confines the child to his room. He first takes out his anger on the furniture, the fireplace, the dishes, the books – and then on the squirrel and the cat, who flee into the garden. The child is suddenly confronted with the consequences of his temper tantrum: The room begins to come alive.

The chair and the sofa, the large grandfather clock and the cup and teapot complain about the pain that the child has inflicted on them. The fire in the large fireplace flares up frightfully and threatens to destroy the child and the house; only the ashes manage to control the flames. The child is paralyzed by fear. The shepherds and shepherdesses on the wallpaper complain that their sheep have been harmed as a result of the rampage. The princess comes out of the storybook and the numbers from the math homework assignment also start to sing. Completely overwhelmed and frightened, the child sees the cats and follows them into the garden. Night has fallen, the moon is shining brightly and the frogs and insects give a concert. The dragonfly and the bat are looking for their partners, but the child ruefully confesses that he killed them – the bat children will grow up without a mother. The child is completely overcome by a guilty conscience, but it seems almost too late: the animals and the trees, into whose trunks the child often carved with a knife, join forces and attack him. In the tremendous uproar, the squirrel is injured. The child attends to him and lovingly dresses the wound: he has learned to be compassionate. Moved, the other animals watch him and together call the child’s mother to reconcile the two.