Strings

Strings (2004) is a Nordic animated fantasy from Danish director Anders Rønnow Klarlund — watch it online on iFILM. James McAvoy, Derek Jacobi, and Catherine McCormack lead the voice cast.

Prince Hal Tara is sure his father was killed by the Zeriths. He slips out of the castle alone, sword in hand, and heads toward a war with people who may have done nothing wrong.

What makes Strings genuinely unusual is that the puppet-string conceit is entirely literal: every character is a marionette, and the threads running from the sky above are what keep them alive. Cut a string — that character dies. The entire world, its politics and morality, grows from this one rule. It makes for a slow, fable-like film — closer to political allegory than action-fantasy, quiet and melancholy in a way that stays with you. Stream Strings (2004) online on iFILM.