As told to Danish Film Institute
Small children are cute and sweet. But real children don’t always behave the way we expect. They simply don’t know yet how to behave – or why. They are self-indulgent, reckless, stubborn, annoying and unfair. It is the deficient picture of our small ones as full-time cuties that we try to rectify with our series about Lili.
We all know what it’s like to meet great challenges. For a small child these can be a never-ending cycle of trials: brushing your teeth, eating nicely, socialising ...
To Lili, no task or challenge seems too big. She will always try, straight on, the direct way. She is daring, she has no fear and she succeeds or fails. This is her way of learning, and she moves forward without ever giving up.
Lili never fails to surprise us. The humour in the films lies in the irony between the audience’s expectations and Lili’s actual actions. The expectations of grown-ups and children as to what eating dinner should look like, where to draw with crayons, or how to use toothpaste can differ wildly.
I hope both adults and children will recognise and identify with the situations Lili is in and be amused at different levels. We want to address the young ones without sacrificing the fact that there must be "food" for their adults too. To be able to share your experiences with others is just so much bigger an adventure.
More about the films and filmmakers
"Lili Loves Food," "Lili Brushes her Teeth" and "Lili's Playdate," three-minute shorts about the everyday adventures of Lili packed with colour and music, are selected for the Generation Kplus competition at the Berlinale.
The films, directed by Siri Melchior, are part of a series of eight shorts about Lili's adventures based on a book series written by Kim Fupz Aakeson. The series is produced by Marie Bro for Dansk Tegnefilm, a well-renowned Danish animation studio who were behind 2015's Generation-participant "Mini and the Mozzies" by Jannik Hastrup and Flemming Quist Møller. Ladybird is co-producing.
Siri Melchior graduated in animation from the Royal College of Art, London, in 1999, and has a degree in graphic design from the Royal Danish Academy's School of Design (1995) and a BA in Art History from Copenhagen University (1991). She is noted for her animation shorts such as "The Dog Who Was a Cat Inside" (2002), "Whistleless" (2009), which premiered in Berlin's children's competition, and the series about "Rita and Crocodile" (2014).
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