The Fantastic Flying Books

"Can I have the name of the movie?"  I was asked by one of my students for the title, "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore," which is completely understandable since it's an extremely long title.  We had just finished watching the animated short and already students wanted to see it again.  One of my students thanked me and others kept asking for the title, so they could watch it again later or look for the book.  Not all of them had this reaction of course, but everybody has their own taste in movies.

For those of you who are not in the know with this title, it is a story about a young man who gets blown away to another land where he becomes the inhabitant of this immense library where the books can fly and have emotions.  It shows the intricate relationship an individual can have with a book...and it doesn't even use the spoken word!!  It is a gorgeous story.

I introduced the book first (if time, I read it) and talked a little more about the author, William Joyce.  I explained that he also wrote the book, A Day With Wilbur Robinson, which the movie "Meet the Robinsons" is based upon and The Guardians of Childhood series which the movie, "Rise of the Guardians" is based.  After I got there attention with that, I explained that they'd be able to go to the nearest library and look for the titles.

The majority of my students got into the film and even those that were questioning the lack of speech, were crying out when I stopped the movie early because we had run out time.  There was some good conversation generated by the film.  Many students wanted to know why there was no talking during the film to which I replied by asking if they could understand the movie without speech and they all shook their heads yes.  One of my students asked me why the people (aside from Mr. Morris) were in black and white, which caused us to look more closely at the film and notice that once an individual had a book in hand, they changed to color (and then we though about what that could mean).  

At the site, morrislessmore.com, you can find more information about the book, movie, and app.  The site also introduces you to additional films by Moonbot Studios.


Image from http://books.simonandschuster.com/