| Blood Tea and Red String | |
|---|---|
DVD cover
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| Directed by | Christiane Cegavske |
| Written by | Christiane Cegavske |
| Music by | Mark Growden |
Release date |
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Running time | 71 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Blood Tea and Red String is a 2006 American stop-motion-animated film, called by director Christiane Cegavske a "fairy tale for adults". It was released on February 2, 2006 after a production time of 13 years, having been filmed in various places in the West Coast and in two studios. The musical score was composed and performed by Mark Growden.
The tale centers on the struggle between the aristocratic White Mice and the rustic Creatures Who Dwell Under the Oak over the doll of their heart's desire. The Mice commission the Oak Dwellers to create a beautiful doll for them. When she is complete, the Creatures fall in love with her and refuse to give her up. Resorting to thievery, the Mice abscond with her in the middle of the night. Filled with fantastical creatures and dazzling scenery, the Creatures Who Dwell Under the Oak journey through the mystical land to reclaim their love. The mice descend into debauchery as they become drunk on blood tea.
Onreview aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 92% based on 12 critics, with an average rating of 7.8/10.[1] It was among the "10 Best Stop Motion Films, According To Letterboxd" (Screenrant). Some other critic’s lists that include Blood Tea and Red String are 7 Best Stop-Motion Animated Movies of All Time (TheCinemaholic), 15 Best Surrealist Movies of The 21st Century (Taste of Cinema), 10 Best Silent Movies of the 21st Century, So Far (Collider), Top 17+ Animated Horror Movies (Creepy Catalog), Animated Films by Solo Artists (Cartoon Brew), and 10 Stunning Animated Movies Directed by Women (Screenrant). Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".[2]
Brett D. Rogers of Frames Per Second magazine praised Blood Tea, calling it "exquisitely realized ... an antidote to modern digital precision and diluted creativity." The same review highlighted Mark Growden's score as suiting the film perfectly, "[w]rapping Blood Tea's intricate scenery and its characters' wordless dialect in a lingering, haunting layer of spectral sound."[3] Harvard's Deirdre Barrett also reviewed the film positively. “'Each man kills the thing he loves' seems to be message of the film," she wrote, "Mice, rats and spider compete for a doll and her exotic child with tragic consequences... The whole film had a dream or storybook feel. But it is the childhood nightmare or the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. Its magic serves sudden, violent death as often as love or beauty. It’s a tale with childhood’s imagery but not a tale for children.”[4]
R. Emmet Sweeney of The Village Voice, called the film "a genuine piece of outsider art".[5]
Dennis Harvey of Variety called the film an "enigmatic, dialogue-free fairy tale", but cautioned that "few will think [it is] suitable for children".[6]
On November 7, 2006, Blood Tea and Red String was released on DVD by Koch Vision, a division of Entertainment One.[7]
