The Czechs are amazingly good at making animated children's entertainment.

Our family's introduction to Czech animation was through a DVD that we were given, entitled "Het Molletje" ("The Little Mole"). We later learned that this series of animated films was originally produced under the name "Krtek" ("The Mole") in the former Czechoslovakia, starting in the 1950s. The stories are almost wordless -- mostly just music and sound effects, so language is not an issue -- and they follow the adventures of this little cartoon mole and other woodland creatures who get into all kinds of interesting situations. To give you a little taste of this series, I found a clip on-line from one of my favorite episodes, where the forest gets razed to make way for an urban development:

The rest of this episode is equally delightful; but unfortunately, I can't find the rest of it in embeddable form. If you can ever figure out a way to watch this episode -- or any of the installments of Krtek that you might be able to find -- I would highly recommend it. It's enjoyable entertainment for both children and adults, from all different cultural backgrounds.

Later on, our family was introduced to another Czech series which the Dutch call "Buurman & Buurman" ("Neighbor & Neighbor") -- but which is apparently entitled "Pat & Mat" ("Check and Checkmate") in Czech. It's a stop-motion animation series (as opposed to the more classic style of animation employed by Krtek), but it's equally well-done. These two characters use a bit more of the spoken word than Krtek, though it's still remarkably easy to follow. Our children are especially crazy about "Buurman Buurman" -- laughing their heads off at their antics. Yet again, I often find myself laughing right along with them. It's another great series that I would highly recommend.

I'm glad that we've been exposed to these sources of entertainment, since we've been living in Europe. Honestly, I wonder why these series never made their way over to North America. Growing up, we were able to enjoy things like the Smurfs (from Belgium) and Voltron (from Japan)... But never Krtek or Pat & Mat. Could it be because Americans were worried about the show's potential Communist influences (which would be very ironic, since the old Communist regimes also worried that these shows were too critical of their government!)? That's actually my best guess, but who knows? At any rate, if you've never had the chance to see these shows for yourself, I would highly encourage you to Czech them out (sorry, I just couldn't resist the pun!).