Before SOS (Shorts on Screen), SBS’s Saturday night short film digest was called ‘Eat Carpet’ and was … much better curated. But that’s besides the point. A 16 minute sci-fi was featured on it one unsuspecting night called The Magic Portal and what made it so neat was that it was made of Lego.
This is the one of the most brilliant Lego stop motion animations ever made, and arguably the first. It was made by Lindsay Fleay, a guy based in Perth and you can find more information about him here.
“The Magic Portal is a short stop motion film that uses LEGO®, plasticene, cardboard and pixellated live action, made between the years of 1985 and 1989 on good ol’ fashioned 16mm film. The story concerns the strange fate of a LEGO astronaut called L, who discovers the Magic Portal on board his giant spaceship. The Portal takes him to a strange and surreal LEGO world where he has a close encounter with a Monster and barely escapes with his life. His report to Captain Paranoia only gets him to trouble and his friend and shipmate P, doesn’t believe him. However, the Portal has a mind of its own, and reappears to upset the cosy world of the giant spaceship and its crew to reveal weirder worlds more peculiar than the last…”
Plasmo and the Infinite Sadness 