People who aren’t members of Animation Resources don’t understand how comprehensive our Reference Packs are. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be posting what each section of our current RefPack looks like. If you are a member of Animation Resources, click on this post to go to the Members Only page. If you aren’t a member yet, today is the perfect time to join! Our current Reference Pack is one of our best yet, and General and Student Members get access to a special Bonus Archive with even more material from past Reference Packs.
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The world of animation is much bigger than it might appear to us at first glance. We are all familiar with the films we grew up with, but Hollywood wasn’t the only place that produced great cartoons… Poland, Japan, Russia, China and Europe all have their own traditions and a rich history of animated film making. Animation Resources’ archive contains many foreign films that are rarely seen in the United States. We feature a sampling of interesting animation from around the world in each Reference Pack.
SD VIDEO:
Stompy
Fyodor Khitruk / Soyuzmultfilm, Russia / 1964
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In previous Reference Packs, we shared Fyodor Khitruk’s adaptation of A. A. Milne’s stories about Winnie the Pooh. This time, we are sharing one of Khitruk’s early films, “Stompy”.
Fyodor Khitruk was a Russian Jew who studied graphic design in Moscow at the OGIS College For Applied Arts. He joined the staff of Soyuzmultfilm in 1938, learning his craft by animating in over 200 films until he was given the opportunity to direct his first film, “The Story Of A Crime” in 1962. This film was a huge success and inspired the artists at Soyuzmultfilm to abandon the hyper-realistic style the studio was known for and explore graphic stylization, not unlike the effect UPA had on Hollywood animation. His films tend to be leisurely paced, but not slow, and the motion of his characters is always carefully observed and relatable.
Khitruk made both adult satire and children’s films, like “Stompy”. This film has some narration, but it isn’t necessary to understand it to follow the action of the film. Khitruk’s design in this film is brilliant, especially the use of flat areas of color surrounding lush textures. It makes you want to reach out and pet the characters.
MP4 Video File / SD / 9:25 / 247 MB Download
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SD VIDEO:
Mystery Of The MK204 Turning Point
Karel Dodal / Prague, Czechoslovakia / 1934
In one of our previous Reference Packs, we included two commercials from Czechoslovakia. This time, we feature a very early animated commercial by Karel Dodal.
The history of animation in Czechoslovakia goes back to the 1920s. Karel Dodal, not only produced advertisements like this one (some featuring Felix the Cat), but also puppet and experimental films. The notes that came with this film were sparse and all in the Czech language, so we don’t know much about them. If you have information about Dodal you can share with us, please drop us a line.
We hope to have more Czech animation to share with you in future Reference Packs.
MP4 Video File / SD / 3:28 / 40 MB Download
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SD VIDEO:
The Breakdown
Klaus Georgi & Lutz Stutzner / DEFA, East Germany / 1988
The DEFA studio (Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft) was independently established in the Soviet Occupied Zone in 1946 to produce propaganda films with the intent of re-educating the East German populace, who had just emerged from under the Nazi rule. A year later, control of the studio was taken over by the Socialist Unity Party, a Stalinist political group, and many of the original founders were ejected from the governing board. The studio got absorbed by the government when the German Democratic Republic was established in 1949. The ideological oppression discouraged most talented filmmakers from working at the studio, and by the time Stalin died in 1953, only 50 films had been produced. Within a couple of years of the end of Stalinism, DEFA began to grow exponentially, and between 1955 and 1992 when the studio closed, DEFA produced over 800 animated films.
Lutz Stutzner was trained as a designer of posters. While attending school in Dresden, he met Otto Muller the head of the DEFA animation studios, who encouraged him to apply as a trainee at the studio. He rose to the position of director and teamed with Klaus Georgi who had helped to establish the animation division at DEFA. Georgi directed over 80 animated films in a variety of techniques: cel animation, cut outs, silhouette and puppet animation. When the Berlin Wall fell, many of the state owned businesses were liquidated, including DEFA. Lutz Stutzner was instrumental in organizing efforts to rescue important artifacts and film elements from East German film studios from being dispersed.
Originally, the film ended with a procession of tanks following the motorcade, but state censors forced them to alter the gag to just infer military vehicles, rather than fully depicting them. Even so, the animation division enjoyed much more of a “hands off” treatment from the government censors than the live action filmmakers at DEFA. This kind of political satire would never have been allowed in one of their live action productions.
MP4 Video File / SD / 3:22 / 125 MB Download
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SD VIDEO:
Professor Balthazar in “The Rise And Fall Of Horatio”
Zlatko Grgic / Zagreb Films, Croatia / 1967
In a previous Reference Pack we featured several Maxi-Cat mini-cartoons by Zlatko Grgic, a Croatian animator who later emigrated to Canada to join the Canadian Film Board.
Grgic is best known for his series of cartoons featuring the character Professor Balthazar, an old man who solves problems for his friends by creating inventions with a magical machine. Produced between 1967 and 1973, the series ran all over the world. Its silent pantomime with voice over narration made it easy to translate to other countries. It aired everywhere from New Zealand to Romania to Zimbabwe. In the United States it was featured on Chuck Jones’ television program, Curiosity Shop.
Altogether there were 59 episodes of Professor Balthazar produced between 1969 and 1978. We will be sharing more with you in upcoming Reference Packs.
MP4 Video File / SD / 7:57 / 121 MB Download
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Animation Resources is one of the best kept secrets in the world of cartooning. Every month, we sponsor a program of interest to artists, and every other month, we share a book and up to an hour of rare animation with our members. If you are a creative person interested in the fields of animation, cartooning or illustration, you should be a member of Animation Resources!
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