Animated Thoughts: Back Down Memory Lane: Russian Animation

(Source: trans-siberian)

When I was little, I couldn’t wait for the time of day when I would watch animated TV shows and/or films. For me, it wasn’t just a way to pass the time. It was a whole ceremony in and of itself. I would sit in a miniature couch that had only enough room for me and my teddy bear, extremely close to the TV, with the blinds drawn. I loved delving into the worlds of the characters – believing, in a sense, that they were real.

I knew that animation isn’t real in the strictest sense of the word; I didn’t expect Pikachu to emerge from my backpack any second, or for Sinbad the Sailor to bring me along on his ship, Nimbus. I understood early on that the characters were made by someone else -- somewhere else in the world -- somehow.

Even so, the emotions and the journeys of the shows and films were part of an alternate reality that felt real in its own right, regardless of the fact that it was all imaginary.

Thinking back on the shows and films I watched when I was little, I realize that they fall into two categories.

One category is that of animation I have continued to watch into adulthood, such as Disney and Dreamworks animation. The films from these studios have, in a sense, grown together with me and I continue to find new meaning in them.

Then the other category is that of cartoons that I have not watched since then. Now and then, a memory will pop up of a scene or a color I remember from a show. In those moments, I’m not sure whether I’m making the memory up, if it was a dream, or if it’s actually based on a show I used to watch.

Recently, I remembered a show about small fairies who live in flowers. That was all I could remember. I spent a fair amount of time trying to track it down on Google. I found that the show was real and it was called Petals.

So many memories came rushing back -- about the circumstances surrounding my watching it (every morning before school), about the characters and about the music. It all appeared to me like a forgotten dream. I must have been six when this show was on.

Having found this show, memories of other shows came to me and before I knew it, I was going down Memory Lane, trying to remember and then find long-forgotten animated films and shows from my childhood.

One of the first things that came to mind while uncovering the cartoons from my past was that I used to watch Russian animated films. They would air sometimes on TV, I think on Fridays. The films weren’t dubbed and they might have had subtitles, but I could not read at the time. So, I saw these films in Russian without knowing what they were truly about.

It was therefore really fun for me to find these now on Youtube and to go back and understand what was going on. In the end, though, I find that I had understood the gist of what was going on when I was little – just from watching the images unfold on the screen.

And what beautiful images! I don’t know the extent to which these films are known or whether or not many people have already seen them. But I have decided to share some links to them below, in case someone has not.

The fact that a kid could watch this, not understanding the words, and yet still grasp the meaning speaks a lot to the skills of the artists who made them. As Alexander Mackendrick explains in his book, On Film-Making, a film should mainly be visual and able to be told without words. But that is easier said than done!

Here are some of the Russian films (with subtitles) I was able to find on Youtube. You can turn on the subtitles on the right lower corner of the screen.

The Tale of the Tsar Saltan