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Hi all
today I will show you the archetype of Soviet animation
Okay now you've earned it!
Privet dudes!
Soviet Animation is another planet
The artist
of stop motion Roman Kachanov, jumped into the field of traditional animation
with the space opera: The Mystery of the Third Planet
something that cannot be denied of Soviet animation
are its completely innovative visuals and techniques
some animators as Stanislav Sokolov
have used communist regime relaxation of the Perestroika
to do some social criticism as The Black & White Film
o The Great Underground Dance
With his distinctive style of Puppetoon
with all kinds of special effects craft
paradoxically Soviet studios
can develope their artistic styles by depending almost exclusively
from subsidies
this also allows much longer production times without them
would be impossible to produce some of these Soviet techniques
like Nicolai Servikanov and Vadim Kurtchevskiy's stop motion
the photorealistic éclair of Anatoliy Petrov or the multitechnical hybrid cut-out of his disciple:
Yuriy Norshtein
Norshtein in 1979 produced the critically acclaimed short film Tale of Tales
a fable about life
declared in 1984 as the best animated film of history by the
Olympic Arts Festival in Los Angeles
this short film generated much expectation to the next project
of Yuriy Norshtein, the short film The Overcoat
but its production lengthened year after year, in 1981 after
finishing just ten minutes of the film
he explained that it was actually a feaure film and in 1985
with his project still unfinished Soyuzmultfilm
fired him
apparently Perestroika has expanded creative liberties
but also has limited the patience of the Ministry of Culture with the parsimony
of their artists
and Norshteiyn, whose film is still in production, and it will for long
has earned the nickname "The Golden Russian Snail"
The Studio
Sverdosk Film has invented the technique of glass painting
for Welcome!
by Alexei Karaev
a disciple of Norshteiyn adopted this technique
Alexander Petrov
perhaps the most promising Russian animator
we must recognize that this is the fruit of decades
of experimentation and artwork
but considering the decay suffering by the American animation
soon they will have nothing to do against the Soviet obsessive perfection
Proshaite!
Ignoring a number of little things that happened in eastern europe at early '90s
the global status was also a turning point
indeed it was the fattest inflection point since the invention of TV
we talked about this topic HERE
about his relationship with anime, curiously
the more Iconic socialist series was completely japanese
But what the hell are we doing talking about Russian animation!?
The Russian studio Soyuzmultfilm
has co-produced animes, like movies:
Wild Swans
Twelve Months
and the series: The Adventures of Lolo the Penguin
But we really are going to talk about:
The Misha Bear
It was the incarnation of the Soviet national spirit, and he was the mascot of
Moscow Olympics, 1980
He was the first mascot for Olympic Games
these Olympics
actually were a disaster
but people liked the mascot
for the closing ceremony
They built a Giant Misha's balloon
and it kept floating for
years between Siberia, the Arctic and Alaska
Misha had already appeared at Soyuzmultfilm's shorts
and at Russian animation series: Nu! Prognodi
People liked so this design
that Nippon wanted to produce an anime series
to exploit the merchandising
The Bear Misha
was a 1979 kodomo series
on a little bear that goes to live in a village
of cute animals
where they live as one big family
separated from the rest of the world
Since the railway was dismantled years ago by a rogue tiger
which has the village under his claws
I see, a series about animals in a happy bucolic village
Eh .. . Yes, but here we can see some parallels
with the opening of the Soviet Union to the Western world
Let's evaluate
Its strength: Realization
Direction is pretty standard
but it is interesting the use
of a more artistic style to explain side stories
humor is quite white, and about the script
it is something quite simple
but moralists stories are good
they cover topics such as the importance of family
and community life
abuses of power
Pacifism
nature and education of children
I give it 4 ninja stars
visual arts
backgrounds are very good and the animation is right, character designs are
generical anthropomorphics they are not bad, but...
The original design of Viktor Tchiskov Misha is very cool!
It is huggable without losing the Slavic illustration's touch.
In Soyuzmultfilm's shorts, Misha keeps
his original design while in Nippon version he loses his soul
I give it 2 ninja stars
the Worst: The soundtrack is correct, about sound effects, I don't know because in
the Spanish version they eliminated them during dubbing, oh!,
Bad sync, but as music of this version is not the worst
I give it 2 ninja stars
Final Rating: 3 ninja stars, as a series for young children
it is very positive, and this formula was very successful in later similar
series
as Maple Town
or Hello Kitty
right
but I do not feel comfortable talking about Misha Bear in the middle of
Karafuto woods, Soviets insists that this island belongs to them
THE RED NINJA!
Eastern Europe Animation is a great
unknown, with endless technical and visuals, they invented Puppetoon
Animation with dried insects, the glass painting, the cut-out hybrid
the éclair, the stop motion on leather, meat, ropes...
pin screen animation
and glass figures overlapping
almost every socialist country also had its own
hipercreative animators
as the Estonian Pritt Pärn with his psychedelical fables
Polish Zbigniew Rybczynski Oscar winner in 1983
by his pixilation short film: Tango
or the Hungarian Rófusz ferenc
who won the Oscar in 1981 for The Fly
the change in the subsidy system to the film industry in these countries
has heavily damaged the entertainment industries, they had not been able to adapt
them very well to commercial animation
there is too much competition and the studios that belonged to governments
now are directed by corrupt shareholders
its future is uncertain
but they still remains standing
thanks to the prestige they keep in certain circles
See you soon!
Bozhe Moy!