And With Every Step Pain
April 8, 2012 1:36 PM   Subscribe

 
Russian and Eastern European cartoons are wonderful. Like a lot of other things under the Soviet Union, they reached a similar destination as their western counterparts, but took a different path.

Check out the Jungle Book, if you can. And the adventures of Vinni Pukh (skip to about 1 minute in for a great song); that's Russia's Winnie the Pooh. And don't forget the wonderful claymation of Krokodil Gena. And then there's the Hedgehog in the Fog.

There's much more, but those are a good primer.
posted by msbrauer at 1:56 PM on April 8, 2012 [8 favorites]


Oh my God, Vinni Pukh sounds exactly like Butters. This is great.
posted by saturday_morning at 2:15 PM on April 8, 2012


If you do a search for "Vinni Puh," you'll see that it's no stranger to MetaFilter.
posted by Nomyte at 2:25 PM on April 8, 2012


Boy, do I love the sound of spoken Russian.
posted by benito.strauss at 2:40 PM on April 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


Sadly, I have to turn to this to get the same experience.
posted by Nomyte at 2:53 PM on April 8, 2012


I wish the Disney version had kept even one element of the original story besides 'so there's this mermaid, right?'
posted by shakespeherian at 4:02 PM on April 8, 2012


Thank you for this! Soviet animation is wonderful. For me, it started with Dikie lebedi, an hour-long 1963 adaptation of The Wild Swans (another Hans Christian Andersen story) which my little sister and I used to watch over and over. It's still one of the loveliest things I've ever seen. The whole thing is here on Youtube. No subtitles, unfortunately, but none are necessary.
posted by two or three cars parked under the stars at 4:02 PM on April 8, 2012 [2 favorites]


I wish the Disney version had kept even one element of the original story besides 'so there's this mermaid, right?'

I really love that the 3rd act conflict in this version can only be resolved by straight up MURDERING the prince and his bride.
posted by The Whelk at 4:30 PM on April 8, 2012


I wish the Disney version had kept even one element of the original story besides 'so there's this mermaid, right?'

That's what I said about 20 years ago. Looking back, I'm glad they didn't. The less accurately they appropriate, the easier it is to teach kids just how bad Disney really is.
posted by DU at 4:53 PM on April 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


I quite liked Disney's Little Mermaid. I also liked this. Two different stories which can both be appreciated. The first version I saw was, I believe a Japanese version back in the early 80's, she was blonde and topless. That one was also quite great.

But, I love most mermaid tales.
posted by Malice at 5:11 PM on April 8, 2012


Fans of the "Little Mermaid" tale may be intrigued by this production of Dvorak's opera Rusalka, which is a Central European variation on the myth. It's directed by one of the most innovative and fascinating of the current crop of opera directors, Stefan Herheim, who sets the action of the opera as a series of flashback memories and fantasies in the mind of Vodnik, the "Father Neptune" analog. The link to the streaming video (live through April 26) is below:

Rusalka at La Monnaie
posted by La Cieca at 5:33 PM on April 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


The Russian Jungle Book is on Youtube, but not subtitled. It's easy enough to follow, if you know the story, and awesome.

Here.
posted by Huck500 at 7:41 PM on April 8, 2012 [2 favorites]


Both I and a fellow Pooh fan I know think Vinni Pukh is better than Disney's version.
posted by JHarris at 7:51 PM on April 8, 2012


Here's a good one: The know-nothing (Neznaika)

And here's another really good adaptation of the same story, unfortunately only a small portion:

Neznaika stop-motion

I don't know what the hell this is, but looks nice:

Cat's house
posted by rainy at 9:36 PM on April 8, 2012


What happened? It's not there anymore.
posted by Partario at 11:10 AM on April 9, 2012


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