L’Enfant et la Sirène (lost unproduced French animated film; 1960s)

L’Enfant et la Sirène is an unproduced french animated film from the 1960s. Its existance is primarily known through the large underwter miniature that was constructed in preperation for the film, sometime between 1963 and 1965.

The website La Scala Retrouvée posted an article in decmeber 2009 on the supposed director, a filmmaker by the name of Néjad Atzamba. The article states (in French) "[At the time, we all had a great admiration for him, because he worked, parallel to his studies, on an animation project that was to revolutionize the "cartoon", as it was then called, and to shake the foundations of the production of Walt Disney itself! In 1967, I met him by chance in the south, where we were spending our holidays. We had not seen each other since 1949 and I gave him our address in Paris. I had the pleasant surprise of seeing him reapply to the Scala, at the end of '67 when we had gone to the cafe theater. I learned that Nejad was still dedicated to his project, but that he still had, after so many years, great monetary difficulties. He stayed in Paris for a long time and came regularly to attend the shows, to which he took great interest. Then, one day, he disappeared, leaving us some photos of miniatures from this animation. Since then, I do not console myself for this waste of huge talent that will never see the light of day! I do not know what has become of Nejad, but I wanted, in my own way, to pay tribute to a colleague for whom I have always kept great esteem and admiration!]"

"[All the scenes of animation were shot in these scenery under water, in the Aegean Sea, in Greece. The animation of characters, fish or other moving objects, was performed in the studio. I do not know what happened to these sets and rushes already shot!]".

Here are two production stills.