When I was little, I had this one VHS with home-taped cartoons [but not by us] that I watched endlessly. One of the cartoons was unknown to me even then, but it was very characteristic and I'd love to find it somewhere.
Here's what I know:
Info about the cartoon
- Very old: I watched the tape about 20 years ago, but the other cartoons on there were from the 60's and 70's, I think.
- It was hand-drawn, with very peculiar, sketch-like foregrounds (I remember those being present a lot).
- It was probably Eastern-European (perhaps Polish), considering the other cartoons on the tape ('Nu, Pogodi!', 'Bolek and Lolek', 'Reksio'), but I think there was no dialog.
- In the context of those other shows, I assume it was also a show, but it might have been a short film.
Details from the cartoon
The whole story took place at the scale of insects, but I'm not sure if all the characters were insects.
At the beginning, we see a pirate - who was a moth or a beetle - on a boat. He drinks a bottle of wine and uses the empty bottle as a telescope to spot some sort of princess.
At some later point, the main character sword-fights this pirate, and I remember some appendages (e.g. antennae) being cut off of the pirate, like the close-call haircut.
The main character probably rode a grasshopper, or something similar.
I also remember a scene where the hero is in some odd building, and a villain keeps pulling levers and drawcords to spring all kinds of booby-traps on the hero. Remainders of previous heroes are scattered throughout the building (a bit like in the volcano in Shrek). This scene may have been a different episode, if it was indeed a TV show, or just a continuation of the first part.
I really hope this rings a bell with someone, as google is not my friend on this.