DEFA-Studio für Trickfilme

Anna, the witch girl, has one short leg and one long leg and is therefore only called the hobble witch. Anna trains until she is far superior to all the others in both running and sneaking races. When she even reaches the end of the world and outwits two clumsy giants who do not want any creature to escape from this terrible place alive, she realises that she can be proud of herself.

The Mapuche tribe asks their Gods for help in difficult situations, including illness and drought. When the Spanish conquerers on their horses invade their country, the indigenous people think that they are aliens. The Spaniards capture and enslave many of the Mapuche tribe. Lautaro, a young captured native, realizes that these aliens are human beings without any divine power. He learns to use their weapons and organizes a resistance movement against the intruders.

Caliph Harun al-Rashid was turned into a stork by a power-greedy rival. Only with the help of his wise vizier and a beautiful princess is he able to escape the spell. Based on a fairy tale by Wilhelm Hauff.

Three men shipwrecked on a desolate island are granted a helpful gift by a mermaid, only to misuse it entirely.

The very first images in the film set unprecedented standards in East German animated film: a Buñuelean eye that fills the entire screen, real-life sequences of fleeing animals and a sound collage running contrary to what is seen on the screen. This also extends to the protagonist of the film, a head on a foot without a body or arms who pads wearily through the depressing surroundings. Upon seeing various figures in the sky, he begins to copy their movements. To his surprise, he himself manages to grow wings and takes to the skies. But his attempt at flight ends in a sobering manner however, as it is revealed that flying creatures are just restricted in their range.

Two neighbours argue about which one of them should get rid of a pile of rubbish.

The residents in heaven are worried because Santa does not know what to do. All of the children would like a sputnik that beeps for Christmas. Nobody in Santa's crew knows what a sputnik is. So he has to go to earth and find out about it.

When Luitpold Leuwenhaupt sees a faboulous goose in the local pet shop, he can't resist buying it for christmas. But the three kids become friends with the goose, calling her 'Auguste'. So, is there any way left for Luitpold to make a fine christmas feast out of Auguste?

For the multimedia exhibition Tangenten I (Tangents I), Dammbeck and co-organizer, sculptor and painter Frieder Heinze had planned to collaborate on a film that would combine non-camera animation with 35mm footage of a train ride between the two Dresden districts of Radebeul and Pieschen. When the exhibition was banned in 1978, Heinze turned to other projects, but Dammbeck continued working on the film by himself. Metamorphoses I—the first experimental film ever to be shown publicly in East Germany—marks the filmic beginning of Dammbeck’s long-term art project the Herakles-Konzept (Hercules Concept).