A Beginner's Guide to Soviet Animated Cinema

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A very enjoyable and informative video. But it makes me laugh that the reason YouTube recommended this to me is probably because I "liked" a version of "Steamed Hams" that draws heavily from "The Glass Harmonica"! 😂

My favourite cartoon is Adventures of Captain Vrungel

The Soviet Union had some absolutely beautiful animations, and it’s interesting how women there could become famous animator artists, unlike in the US where even today there are no famous women animators

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:)

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.

В чём был несомненный плюс советской анимации это разнообразие. Цель заработать на фильме была далеко не первичная. Деньги просто выделялись на мультфильм и всё. У студий и режиссеров были свои визуальные и повествовательные стили. Перепутать их было сложно. Также стоит отметить свободу творчества и самовыражения. Рамки были, но они были куда шире, чем на западе, поэтому выражаться можно было как угодно это видно и по визуальной части в частности. Я как любитель анимации это всегда ценил в советской анимации. На американские мультфильмы слишком сильно повлиял дисней и коммерческий успех их работ. Это не делает западную анимацию плохой, но всё же это сделало внешний вид и стиль повествования очень однообразным.

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 ❤️

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.

film film film is awesome. Vinni-pukh is masterpiece. Gena and Cheburashka as well. Mystery of the third planet is also really good one. Zhil-byl pyos is nice but a bit sad. Also, there's a couple of good cartoons- - Padal Proshlogodny sneg- a hilarious tale about a dreamer who went into the woods to get a Christmas tree. - Cossacks (cartoon series) - it's about bizarre adventures of 3 ukrainian cossaks. - Karlsson- Soviet version of story of karlsson who lives on the roof. - Wow! The talking fish! (ukh-ty! govoryashya ryba!) - it's an old tale about mythic creatures. Also is a comedy. - Flying ship. - If you like slavic folklore or lore of the Witcher, this might be interesting for you(but keep in mind its for kids) - Vovka v trydevyatom tsarstve - Comedy about lazy boy. - Sledstvie vedut kolobki - Funny detective by animator of Rugrats, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, The Wild Thornberrys Movie - Adventures of Captain Wrongel - it's a naval detective musical with good songs and jokes. - Home for Kuz'ka- its about a little cute brownie. Don't ask me why brownie can be cute, watch it by yourself. There are also interview on Conan o Brian show with Mila Cunis where them talks about Soviet cartoons. Its kinda fun. And yes our Vinnie the Poo sounds like old smoker, he's a funky bear, he's roar.

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.

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.