Lapitch the Little Shoemaker

Lapitch the Little Shoemaker (Croatian: Čudnovate zgode šegrta Hlapića, German: Lapitch der Kleine Schummacher) is a 1997 animated feature that was originally released by Croatia Film. Produced on vintage cel equipment during the early 1990s, this was the third feature from Croatia Film's animation unit and director Milan Blažeković, after The Elm-Chanted Forest (1986) and The Magician's Hat (1990).

It is based on The Brave Adventures of Lapitch, a 1913 novel by Croatian author Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić. In this adaptation, all of the characters are animals, and the title character is a mouse, rather than the human character of the original work. As with the book, the film is about a shoemaker's apprentice who leaves the confines of his ill-tempered master, and sets off on an adventure. During his journey, he befriends a circus performer named Gita, and fights against the evil Dirty Rat (rat version of the Black Man, a villain in the original book).

Lapitch remains Croatia's most successful production in terms of viewership, and became that country's official selection for the 1997 Academy Awards (in the Best Foreign Language Film category). Its popularity led to the production of a 26-episode television series, also called Lapitch the Little Shoemaker, at the end of the 1990s.

In February 2000, it first appeared in North America as the initial entry in Sony Wonder's short-lived "Movie Matinee" video series. The Disney Channel also premiered it on U.S. cable television later that same month.