Check out this animation by cartoonist (and neighbor) Nina Paley. But first, here’s an introduction from my friendly neighbourhood blog dailyheights:

Cartoonist and PH resident Nina Paley is slowly turning the narrative of Ramayana (a Hindu Sanskrit epic) into a series of remarkable animations set to a soundtrack of scratchy old 78s. The result is Sita Sings the Blues, a “self-animated, unfunded, destined-to- drive-me-to- the-poorhouse feature-in-progress.”

Nina describes the latest chapter, Hanuman Finds Sita: “Gags, gimmicks, AND narrative – hundreds of pages of text crammed into 3 minutes. Plus it contains all 4 main characters: Sita, Rama, Hanuman and Ravana, with extra added bonus demons … People already familiar with the Ramayana will probably enjoy these musical bits more, but I’m trying to make the story understandable to anyone.”

This animation really is one of the most beautiful things I have seen for some time. It may take a while to load but it is worth the wait. Link is here.

NB (April21, 6pm) The link is down, probably because it has just been linked on BoingBoing. Here’s another link which should work.