Story Of A Stolen Teddy Bear
March 29, 2009 3:19 PM   Subscribe

The Tree Of Childhood is a debut animation produced by young Russian director Natalia Mirzoyan. Now tell me - have you ever fallen in abyss in your childhood dreams?
posted by Surfin' Bird (16 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
If you enjoy this, please check out the work of Yuri Norstein. She seems clearly indebted to him. Thanks, Surfin' Bird!
posted by RGD at 3:29 PM on March 29, 2009


thats really nice.
posted by fuzzypantalones at 4:21 PM on March 29, 2009


This is good.
posted by loquacious at 4:28 PM on March 29, 2009


Wow, that was really wonderful.
posted by nola at 5:07 PM on March 29, 2009


This guy has great talent, really enjoyed it.
posted by macmurchadh at 5:20 PM on March 29, 2009


Very nice, thanks! Googling around, I find she won a prize for best debut at the Suzdal festival; this article quotes her as saying she heard a young child sitting behind her at the screening, "and his reaction was very touching... He went through a lot because of Misha, who was stolen. And then he burst into tears. Forgive me, please, mother of that child!"
posted by languagehat at 5:25 PM on March 29, 2009


That was amazing!

My daughter watched it with me. After it was over she grabbed her favorite toy, a stuffed elephant named Tim; and said, "I hope the owls don't come and take Tim away." She really enjoyed it, though.
posted by vertigo25 at 5:26 PM on March 29, 2009


Far from what we've been taught over here in America that the Russian people are a bunch of cold hearted Commie bastards, I've really connected with them over the years. Mostly through film, Andre Rublev , Utomlyonnye solntsem , and Stalingrad come to mind. The folklore and children's stories all seem very familiar even though I can't remember growing up with them.
posted by nola at 6:09 PM on March 29, 2009


Misha, who was stolen

"Mishka," FYI, is just like "Teddy"--it refers to the bear. I don't know why they capitalized it, but there's no real-life tragedy lurking behind the kid's reaction.
posted by nasreddin at 7:53 PM on March 29, 2009


Well, that was awesome. Thanks for posting.
posted by defenestration at 8:06 PM on March 29, 2009


"Where the Wild Things Are"
posted by stbalbach at 8:18 PM on March 29, 2009


Aw, that was beautiful. I love the crayony quality of the animation.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 8:39 PM on March 29, 2009


Fascinating. Very special and richly created animation. I only wish subtitles were added for us westerners.
posted by worldawaychicago at 8:49 PM on March 29, 2009


"Mishka," FYI, is just like "Teddy"--it refers to the bear.

Yeah, sorry, I should have made that clear in my comment. "Misha" is the conventional name for bears in Russian (it's the diminutive for Mikhail, and thus equivalent to "Mike"; "Mishka" is a further diminutive, like "Mikey").

I don't know why they capitalized it

Because, conventional or not, it's a proper name, like Teddy.
posted by languagehat at 6:50 AM on March 30, 2009


The animation really is beautiful and the music complements it perfectly.

However, am I being overly cynical or is it essentially about the inherent selfishness of childhood? I don't speak any Russian so I couldn't understand the dialogue, but it seemed that the giant-owl-woman is building a nest to protect the furry-worm-people (which she treats with the same love and protection as the boy treats Mishka). The boy understands this and what will happen if he takes the bear, he demures for a second but ultimately puts his own interests first.

That is in no way a criticism, it's far more honest and, to me, interesting as a result, I just wondered if other people saw the same meaning in it?
posted by beardless at 1:52 PM on March 30, 2009


Yes, that's how I saw it. Russians don't tend to sugarcoat things much.
posted by languagehat at 1:57 PM on March 30, 2009


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