Experimental Eastern European Films

The time period that we went through this Tuesday was centered around Eastern European films and their impact on the animation industry. A lot of them were experimental pieces that created a different, unique style that now strongly identifies as Eastern European. While each of these films varied in content, style, and message, they all showed the rich culture and history form these parts.
Hedgehog in the Fog showcased Russia's mythology and their myriad of folk tales. The cute designs of the characters in puppets forms and the whimsical yet ominous fog really brought the film together and made the film entertaining to watch.
The Pied Piper by Krysar was an unique take on the classical tale that provided a social commentary on superficial wants, greed, and corruption. While the film did seem a bit long, the puppets were well designed and choreographed and the film was edited together in an engaging way. I really liked this film's angle and how Krysar used a classical story that most of an audience would know and twisting it to provide a social commentary. And then there was Tale of Tales.
Tale of Tales was a very interesting film that was able to take several stories centered around World War II in Soviet Russia and connect them through association. The design of the movie was absolutely amazing. After watching the documentary and seeing how many pieces each puppet has, I am even more astounded by Yuri Norshteyn's  dedication to making this movie. I really enjoyed the color and detail in the background scenes and the different mediums for different  stories (the tan and red color scheme for the girl and bull compared to the colorful style for the grey wolf). I also really enjoyed how Norshteyn used this film to share his memories of such an important part of Russia's history. During World War II, the Soviet Union suffered the largest loss of life in military casualties and second largest in civilian casualties (beat out by China). Since most of the battles fought in the Eastern Front were in the Soviet Union, many civilians died due to militant action. However, there was also a huge food and supply shortage as both were directed to the soldiers and the war effort that caused even more civilian deaths through famine and disease. Coupled with several bad winters, the USSR wasn't looking too good during World War II. Tale of Tales reflects back on this time of depression, strife, and uncertainty to remind us of this history. The way the film is edited together in a non linear time frame is odd but I think it fits the film. War time is a confusing time, a lot of things get mixed around, deleted and re added, just like this film. While the movie still had some minor issues, I really enjoyed watching this film and experiencing this hard time in Russia's history.

the beautiful backgrounds and different styles for each character

  Dont cry little apple. Dont cry.