The Hedgehog in the Fog of Belleville

 I liked the Triplets of Belleville. It was goofy, well animated, and highly stylized making for an all-together enjoyable movie experience. I've heard of it before, and was actually planning on watching it before now. But I'm glad I got the ability to see it with a cinematic experience.

My favorite characters (stylistically)

Overall, it was the style that caught my favor, but parts of the story were also interesting. One part I noticed was the sound. Speech is very limited, and mostly remains mumbling, other versions of grunts, or simply gestures to indicate intent. I figured out the entire story without a single word of explanation, aside from the American waitress taking away Hamburgers because the grandmother had no money. Which brings me to a smaller point of liking: I thought the stereotype of Americans was hilarious. Wait, since I'm American, is that racist? Anyway, continuing...

I'm not entirely sure what the animators were trying to get across, but my guess is perseverance. Madame Souza travels to America in a little pedal powered boat, chasing the (literally) highly stylized cargo ship taking her grandson. Her grandson was arguably undeserving of such treatment, seeing how sad he made her earlier in life, but she puts everything she has, including risking her life by pitting herself against the mafia, into saving him.

If you think about the purpose of his kidnapping, it's rather silly and doesn't strike me as a very efficient source of entertainment. But it made for a wonderful movie. I think the animator was successful, and the world agreed: his movie won many awards and was a winner and then feature in a huge film festival. I would say this is one of my favorite traditional animations.

Once again, in our period of symbolic animation, I came across something I loved. Hedgehog in the Fog was not only beautiful, but also haunting and even funny at times. The fog and its dark silhouettes were eerie, casting upon me a strange admiration for Norshteyn's style. It almost reminded me of "Where the Wild Things Are" in a way, yet it was much more original. It incorporated the style seen in Adventures of Prince Achmed, while adding more detail and color to it all. The sound was also well done. The violins brought suspense to certain situations, such as seeing silhouettes in the fog. Overall, I loved it.

 "Gotta go fast!"

In addition to the general look, I also appreciated the character himself. He was innocent and curious. You could tell how easily scared he was. Yet still he gathered up the courage to go down into the mists and confront his fears. The Hedgehog has a childhood innocence that is cute and nostalgic, yet bold enough to not only travel off on his own, but also to confront new and possibly dangerous areas. The Hedgehog is one protagonist I have not grown to hate after a while.

Facing his fears

Another large part of what I like about this is how there is no primary antagonist. The story does not revolve around one "evil" person trying to harm the main character. There is no attempts to kill or hurt, or put to any sort of test on the protagonist by a certain entity. This is rare in these days, since most of the time challenges take form in flesh, and not in a non-living entity. In this case, the fog would be the closest thing to an antagonist, as it is a challenge towards the little hedgehog.

The filmmaker used an invention we covered earlier: the multi-plane camera. One might notice how the creatures and background move independently at different paces, giving a sort of illusion of perspective. However, one thing interesting done is the lack of true perspective. Instead of how traditional Western animation used perspective to stop at a certain point, Russian animation seems more like a window, with an infinite horizon line. It's a very creative way to look at things and its result is very pretty. Norstein definitely created a very good film and I think he was successful in showing that selfless help was a valuable trait.

Hedgehog in the Fog is currently my favorite traditional animation. I just can't wait for the sequel, Hedgehog in the Fog 2: Fast edition

 Official theatrical release poster

I should also talk about Krysar as well. I recognized that it would be about the pied piper very quickly, but it had quite a different ending. Of course, in both stories, the pied piper leads all the rats to their deaths with a magic charming flute. And in both stories they refuse to pay him. But in the original, he leads all of the children to their deaths. He doesn't turn all the adults into rats and then kill them. But this has a better message than just "Don't be ungrateful just because a problem was solved."

The people were just like rats. It was fitting that he first turned all the people into rats before killing them. In the beginning, the rats are stealing things and hoarding away gold they'd probably have no use for. The humans do the same: we see them stuffing their gold and goods into chests and hiding them away. Even the leader looks and sounds like a rat. He is glutinous and greedy. The Pied Piper gives him a second chance and they throw it away.

I would also write on the Fantastic Planet, but I had to leave earlier to go to a meeting for my job. It looked very creative in my opinion, and was original and spectacular. The animation felt lazy sometimes, but that gave it a more eerie quality as well, which redeemed that. I should watch the full thing sometime.