Mythical Beasts Made Soviet: Adaptation of Greek Mythology in Soviet Animation of the 1970s (original) (raw)

On the Topics and Style of Soviet Animated Films

Baltic Screen Media Review, 2016

This article provides a survey of Soviet animation and analyses the thematic and stylistic course of its development. The animated film of Soviet Union emerged and materialised in synch with, and was directly shaped by, the fluctuations of the region’s political climate. A number of tendencies and currents of Soviet animation also pertain to other Eastern European countries. After all, Eastern Europe constituted an integrated cultural space that functioned as a single market for the films produced across it by filmmakers who interacted in a regional professional network of film education, events, festivals, publications etc. Initially experimental, the post-revolutionary Russian animation soon fell under the sway of socialist realist discourse, together with the rest of the Soviet art field, and quickly crystallised as a didactic genre for children. Disney’s paradigm became its major source of inspiration both in terms of visual style and thematic scope despite the fact that Soviet Union was regarded as the ideological opposite of Western way of life and mindset. Soviet animation industry was spread across different studios and republics that adopted slightly varied production practices and tolerated different degrees of artistic freedom. Studios in smaller republics, such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, in particular stood out for making more ideologically complicated films than those produced in Moscow.

Tropical Russian Bears: Jews and Soviet Animation during the Cold War

Images: A Journal of Jewish Art and Visual Culture, 2015

After Stalin consolidated the major animation studios and closed down smaller regional studios to create a single Moscow- based drawn and puppet animation studio, the animation studio Soyuzmultfilm became the largest animation studio in Eastern Europe. In the 1960s, Soviet Jewish animators focused on the theme of social geography and developed individual characters in relationship to social mapping. This essay analyses the enigmatic Cheburashka, the Soviet Mickey Mouse, whose popularity as a Communist ideal led to his starring role as Soyuzmultfilm's most enduring logo. It is particularly concerned with the development of the ethnically-unidentifiable Cheburashka against the history of the Moscow Zoo and its inter-species exhibitions.

On the Links between Caricatures and Animated Films in Communist Eastern Europe

Baltic Screen Media Review, 2017

This article analyses and maps the links between caricature and animated film, as well as their development during the post-World War II era, in communist Eastern Europe. The article also deals with the specific nature of animation production under the conditions of political censorship and the utilisation of Aesopian language as an Eastern European phenomenon for outmanoeuvring censorship.

Vyacheslav Kotenochkin’s Nu, pogodi! Soviet animation and the characteristics that make it particular to its alternative modernist context.

In his text Semiotics of Cinema, Iurii Lotman, discusses the idea that “a film is part of the ideological struggles, culture and art of its era ... related to numerous aspects of life lying outside the text of the film.” In examining an array of Soviet animations, Lotman’s idea can be supported. In particular the series Nu, pogodi!, an extrapolation of its socialist, political time, captures the essence of the Soviet culture and the society in which it was produced. Through studying the characteristics embedded in Nu, pogodi! and other works, one not only gains an understanding of the practices of Soviet animation, but also the social and cultural position of Russia at the time each episode was released.

Natalya Petrova «Present-day Cultural Policy and On-screen Folklore Representation» // ILCEA [En ligne] №20. 2014

In this article, the influence of current cultural policy on the representation of folklore in media culture is considered through the example of animated films of the 2000s. European and Post-Soviet cartoon films present traditional national cultures: folklore (especially epic songs) is used to support national patriotic projects. These animated cartoons often borrow technical elements from the American animated films. At the same time, the intentions of the folklore adaptations created in the U.S.A. are different from European and Post-Soviet countries: the commercial purposes are in the foreground, for which internationally known fairy tales are best suited. В данной статье на примере анимационных фильмов 2000-х годов рассматривается влияние актуальной культурной политики на репрезентацию фольклора в медиакультуре. Европейские и постсоветские мультфильмы презентируют традиционную национальную культуру: фольклор (особенно эпические песни) используется для поддержки национальных патриотических проектов. Эти мультфильмы часто заимствуют технические элементы американских анимационных фильмов. В то же время интенции создания фольклорных адаптаций в США отличаются от европейских и постсоветских стран: на передний план выходят коммерческие цели, которым наиболее соответствуют международно известные сказочные сюжеты. Cet article étudie l’influence de la politique culturelle actuelle sur la représentation du folklore dans la culture médiatique à travers l’exemple de films d’animation des années 2000. Les dessins animés européens et post-soviétiques présentent leur culture nationale traditionnelle : le folklore (en particulier les chants épiques) est utilisé pour soutenir des projets nationaux patriotiques. Ces dessins animés empruntent souvent des éléments techniques aux films d’animation américains. Dans le même temps, les intentions qui président à la création d’adaptations d’éléments du folklore aux États-Unis diffèrent de celles des pays européens et post-soviétiques, dans la mesure où elles mettent au premier plan les buts commerciaux, auxquels les sujets de contes universellement connus correspondent à merveille.

Soviet Myths in Modern Russian Cinema Panfılov’s

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF POLITICS, EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION, 2021

In the study, the concepts of myth and cinema were used. Today, the most important narrator tool of myths is cinema. For this reason, the relation between myth and cinema has been tried to be revealed in this study. Although mythincludes an oral culture, its close relationship with cinema is known with the developing communication technologies. Narratives as modern myths take their place in cinema. Myth is an element that strengthens unity in the social structure. The reason for the intense display of myths in the cinema comes from the effort to strengthen social cohesion. Since myths are also about heroism, there is a situation related to the representation of the person that the society wants and imagines.These representations are presented to the public through cinema. In this study, symbolic narratives through Soviet mythologies that make up the meaning universe of the movie "Panfilov's 28 " were examined. In the aforementioned film, the symbolic and presentational reality of the constructed ideology constitutes the problem of research. It is aimed to reveal this symbolic construction with the concept of myth by Roland Barthes. The connotative and suggestive connotations of the signs used in the film are analyzed. Based on a qualitative research design, it has been studied from a descriptive perspective as interpretative and cultural paradigms.

The Theme of the Exodus in Russian Folklore: The “Pharaoh” Mythical Creatures, According to the Archive of the Estonian Literary Museum

Studia mythologica Slavica

In this article, we will consider the Russian folklore retellings of the Exodus, with special emphasis on the narratives about mythical creatures called “pharaohs”. The current analysis is based on a Russian collection of folklore. The data were collected in the 1920–‘40s in the territories of Estonia, Russia, and Latvia (Lutsi region, Estonian settlement) in the context of Slavic belief systems and legends about these characters. Currently, folklore materials are stored in the archive collection of the Estonian Literary Museum (ELM) (Tartu), and in the Skriptoorium. The article gives an overview of the most characteristic motifs, the origin, appearance, and habitat of these mythical creatures. The actions of the Pharaohs are described in more detail.