The Red Balloon (Le ballon rouge, 1956) and White Mane (Crin blanc: Le cheval sauvage, 1953) remain timeless and much loved children's classics. Unseen for years, these award-winning short films have been recently restored so as to present them in the best possible picture quality. The two films were both directed by the award-winning Albert Lamorisse, a man who the New York Times has described as "...a remarkable artist: one of the cinema's best poets and a fearless explorer of the scary and exhilarating outbacks of the imagination."

The Red Balloon (Le ballon rouge)
The award-winning and critically acclaimed fantasy short film directed by Albert Lamorisse follows the relationship between a little boy and a red balloon with a mind of its own that he befriends on the Parisian streets. Widely recognised as one of the most important films in children's cinema, this 1956 classic is the only dialogue-free film to win an Oscar for Best Screenplay.

White Mane (Crin blanc: Le cheval sauvage, 1953)
The 1953 French classic and winner of the Palme D'Or at Cannes tells the tale of a boy who tames a wild stallion called White Mane. Filmed in the marshes of the Camargue in south-west France, White Mane is a beautiful journey into the wilderness that remains a groundbreaking work of children's cinema to this day.

The Red Balloon and White Mane will be released together on UK Blu-ray by Network on 18th December 2009 at the RRP of £14.99, with the following special features (in standard definition):

• Mon Père était un Ballon Rouge – documentary on Albert Lamorisse;
• L'enfant Qui Ne Souriait Pas – documentary on the main actor of Crin Blanc.