Here is an animated gem from 1980, which draws on classic modes that came before it and anticipates the Japanese animation that followed. Jacques Prévert was working on its screenplay until virtually his dying day. The animator Paul Grimault was refining and wrangling over the movie, Le Roi et L'Oiseau, with producing partners for decades, following an argument over a early rough-cut showing in the early 50s. It is loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep. A pompous King, puffed up with pure Bourbon vanity, rules over the fantasy kingdom of Takicardia, whose surreal vastness is enough to give anyone a heart disorder. He falls in love with the portrait of a shepherdess. However, this imaginary woman runs off with the equally imaginary chimney sweep in the neighbouring canvas, and the king institutes a search, involving a giant robot. He is trounced by the sharp-tongued mockingbird – the only figure in the kingdom who is not sycophantically deferential.

The film draws on Fritz Lang and perhaps the style of Walt Disney from the great era of Snow White. There are interesting anticipatory echoes, not just of anime, but Roald Dahl and the Vulgaria of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It's a richly conceived treat.