The Happy Prince (1957)

UCLA Student Film, Preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Richly textured paper cut animation from the Animation Workshop, adapting the Oscar Wilde story "The Happy Prince." A swallow lands on the statue of "The Happy Prince," who used to live inside the walls of the castle, protected from the suffering of his city. As a statue above the town, he cries from witnessing the pain of his people and asks the swallow to take the jewels off his person to share with the people. The swallow obliges and in his efforts to comfort the prince, falls ill and dies.