A Beginner's Guide to Soviet Animated Cinema

This video serves as a beginner’s guide to the world of Soviet animation. I cover the entire history of the USSR, including films like The Snow Queen, Story of One Crime, Hedgehog in the Fog, Tale of Tales, Mirror of Time, Winnie the Pooh, and Cheburashka.

I made a video devoted to director Fyodor Khitruk you can watch here:

and one devoted to director Yuri Norstein:

You can see a list of all of the films mentioned here:

You can watch a playlist of all my cinema beginner’s guides here:

0:00 1922-1953
5:11 1953-1964
8:58 1964-1982
15:36 1982-1991

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[tommythecat]

The Snow Queen is SUPER FAMOUS in Italy, where it's shown every Christmas, together with the Peanuts special. Turns out that a communist party member came back from the USSR with a copy, and his brother in law worked at one of the few TV stations Italy had at the time, he liked the cartoon so much he proposed it to the executives, and since then it's been shown at least once a year.

[VigelanteVictim]

It's also worth mentioning that Soviet animation created a lot of works based on history, myths and farytales of not only Soviet nations, but many others, like Greek, Indian, African, Arabic, with strong, smart, proud heroes. They showed me that the world has so many different peopels and cultures.

[seeinred]

It warms my heart that animations from my childhood are being discovered by people from other countries and cultures.
Those films are treasured to this day.

[pyatig]

The writer of Nu Pogodi and Cat Leopold, Arcady Khayt, is my dad’s cousin. We visited him in Moscow in 1989 and I got to sit behind the desk where he wrote. As a 14 year old I thought that was the coolest thing ever

[maksimborodajenko]

It is a shame that most Soviet animation is not getting restored for full-hd resolutions. It is a shame, because even from crappy versions you can see very talented artistic approach, especially in puppet animation.

[InternetDinosaurs]

Many of these cartoons were broadcasted on Sundays on national tv in a culture channel for kids in Mexico. They were a part of my childhood :3

[ztorm]

My favourite cartoon is Adventures of Captain Vrungel

[pepita]

I prefer the Russian Jungle book adaptation much more than the American one. The Russian one managed to illustrate the cruelty of the wild, and it's more mature in it's themes, depictions.
Also, it's much more faithful to the source material, to the book, which I loved as a child.

[SurlyInsomniac]

Great video. I had the honor of meeting Yuri Norstein back in the 90s, when I was studying animation. He and his wife are a huge influence.

[bulbousborb]

Soviet cartoons were a big part of my childhood. I watched Vinni Pukh, Nu, Pogodi, Troe iz Prostokvashino, and many more. My mom and dad introduced them to me. They watched them themselves when they were young, long before they immigrated from Belarus to the US. They are so charming, I recommend checking them out. Definitely feeling the nostalgia right about now.

[maiaraandrade]

I'm shook... "The Golden Antelope" is a soviet animation! As kids my brother and I (and consequently my parents too lol) used to watch it literally on the daily 😲✨
I'm starting to think we watched more Soviet movies than I previously thought! 😄
Lot of good memories and emotions associated with this movie ❤️

[kazookiddo]

Even though I am Mongolian, I grew up with Soviet animations, because during the early 2000s Russian and Soviet animated movies were on TV almost everyday. These animated movies hold precious memories of my childhood.

[chingizzhylkybayev]

The Town Musicians of Bremen is one of the all-time most iconic Soviet animation pieces. I guess it's natural that you didn't focus on it too much as it was iconic pretty much solely because of its soundtrack and not animated characters.

[robertborland]

This is really incredible. There is so much fascinating animation from the eastern Europe that gets easily overlooked by US audiences. This is a fascinating survey of some solid films.

[ashsummermakaio]

There’s a beautiful Soviet animated film about the nutcracker. This used to stun me a lot as a little kid because of the beauty, and now as an adult I understand the message behind. Soviet animation and art in general were very fascinating and beautiful, they could entertain both kids and adults.

[haiironotategami]

You should definitely watch the Soviet cartoon "Mowgli" to understand the greatness of Soviet animation. The movement of the characters in this work is great.

[chingizzhylkybayev]

The animation of Robert Sahakyants at Armenfilm deserves its own commentary. The Armenfilm tales are absolutely iconic all around the post-soviet space for fun, slightly trippy animation combined with absolutely hilarious witty dialogue. They are extremely fun to watch.

[darkfalzx]

The soviet adaptation of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass were fantastic, and far closer to the more modern, darker and quirkier interpretation of Lewis Carroll's work. Also, I absolutely adore the great music and visual madness of The Secret of the Music Box (Шкатулка с секретом). My wife finds it creepy though:)

[inzvy]

"Golden Antelope" and "Scarlet Flower" were my favorites as a kid, the latter one is mentioned in this video, but it deserves way more time - its incredibly beautiful
Also speaking about Armenian films, "Wow, a talking fish!" is an absolute masterpiece with really cool animation

[Thersyl]

I'm from Croatia, but I watched the Snow Queen as a kid because we had it taped on a VHS from a TV program. It was actually dubbed in German so I had no idea it was Soviet until I stumbled upon it a few years ago while on a nostalgia spree. The Ghost of Canterville was an extra in some DVD and it was dubbed in English. I loved the rotoscoping style and I would rewatch them all the time.