Eastern European Animation Options

[Gordan]

Hi !

Growing up in Eastern Europe, I loved watching Hollywood cartoons from the Golden Age of cartoon-making, but I also loved some Eastern European animation.

My favourites were:

Yugoslavian (today: Croatian) "Professor Baltazar" (especially the last season which, unlike the first few seasons, was made more for adults than for children).

Hungarian "Gusztav" (it was simply brilliant and definitely made with adults in mind).

Czechoslovakian "A je to" (puppet animation that told some really amusing stories about two clumsy neighbours).


Has anyone ever seen any of these animated series here?
I'm really curious to hear some of your opinions regarding these films...

I really hope these cartoons will be available on DVD in North America some time in the future.

[CaptGeorge]

I've read that there have been big problems trying to license a lot of Eastern European/Soviet/Russian animation.

Part of it (as least as far as the Soviet/Russian side goes) is that after the fall of the Soviet empire, a lot of the state-run studio systems fell into complete chaos and there's a very big question as to who owns what anymore! Also, I've read a lot of the films were never very well taken care of and are in sad shape.

The last story I had read about this situation was that an American distributor was finding it extremely difficult to deal with a film supplier because they really didn't know who owned the films and the films they were getting were in sad shape and in need of serious restoration. The gist I got out of the article was that with the money they were spending to restore the films they really weren't making a cent off of them...

[Gordan]

CaptGeorge,

thanks for replying.

I can imagine what a chaotic situation it is today regarding the ownership of Eastern European cartoons.

I had so many of these films on VHS tapes when I lived in ex-Yugoslavia, but, unfortunately, I lost all these tapes during the war in Bosnia (1992-1995).

Two years ago when I went back to Bosnia, I was able to find only one (bootleg) VHS tape with Zlatko Grgic's "Professor Baltazar" cartoons (but none of these cartoons are from the last season).

[CaptGeorge]

Sorry to hear you lost your tapes, Gordan, but there are more important things than recordings that are irreplaceable... like your life!

If any of us live long enough, many of the films that we thought were lost or misplaced eventually do show up again in some form. It's happened to me more times than I care to remember. It's amazing how some of the things that I haven't seen in over 20 years are popping up again on TV or home video now.

Those films will show up again. At least you're still around so that you CAN enjoy them in this lifetime.

[Studio Toledo]

Sad to hear about these problems with the animation produced in Eastern Europe during the days of the Soviet Bloc.

There's one or two state-run studios left in the region. One noted studio which is my favorite is Hungary's Pannonia Film, who has produced "Gustavas" and many other animated feature films and shorts for the past 50 years.

I had the opportunity to e-mail a PR man for the studio, who told me how the current Hungarian goverment doesn't have a real need for animation as it used to. There are not a current total of some 15 personnal working for Pannonia Film, when it used to be in the hundreds before the end of Communism.

The real concern is that the money needed for many animated films don't exist anymore when the goverment used to fund the studios. Nowadays it's the filmmakers' own pockets that have to be used instead.

When I was a kid, I used to actually watch a lot of Eastern European animation, but I never knew that it was. I remember Professor Belthazar, as those cartoons were once seen on cable TV in the early '80s on Nickelodeon, during the program "Pinwheel". Zlatko Grgic created the character I believe, though later he left Zagreb Film (where the cartoons were made) and moved to Canada where he continued animating for different places (including the NFB film "Hot Stuff") as well as teaching animation at Sheridan College.

Pinwheel also played one familiar Czechoslovakian series, "Krtek the Mole", created by Zdenk Miler for Kratky Film Praha. The studio responsible for these cartoons was "Studio Bratri v Triku"(sp?), oddly this studio was also responsible for their work on the Tome & Jerry and Popeye cartoons of the early '60s that Gene Deitch directed (though they went uncredited). I managed to snag up a few of these shorts on film and video over the past few years, though I never had managed to get a tape of them at all when they aired (not that my mom would bother keeping the VCR on for the long duration). Currently there's a DVD that is released of these Krtek cartoons in Japan.

It's true that some of these films are supposibly lost or kept in some kind of legal limbo, some have also crepted into the pirated channels including bootlegged videotapes, VCDs as well as on the internet.

There are also a few attempts at restoring or preserving these films as well. One noted from the last decade was Films by Jove, Inc.'s aquisition of Russian Soyuzmultfilm's library, and the release of a number of compliations, notedly the "Masters of Russian Animation" series (which also was seen on Bravo and IFC at one point). New York-based Rembrandt Films has also released videos of the works of Jiri Trinka, Zagreb Film and a number of others in their library. But it's still not as great as it should be, and many of these work are still unearthed in a proper fashion (usually due to lack of interest).

[Lupin IX]

Amazon has 3 Best of Zagreb Film collections available

Professor Balthazar doesn't seem to be here though

I think I remember these being on New Zealand TV but this must have been 30 or more years ago so my memories are vague

has anyone seen these collections?

[Studio Toledo]

Amazon has 3 Best of Zagreb Film collections available

Professor Balthazar doesn't seem to be here though

Shame really! Not that it helps to have them or not. I've seen a few of those episodes selling on eBay in 16mm form from time to time.

I think I remember these being on New Zealand TV  but this must have been 30 or more years ago so my memories are vague

They must've been shown in a good number of places during that time. I only remember seeing the Prof. Balthazar films back in the early '80s here in the US on cable TV.

has anyone seen these collections?

Not me. You can find out more about them here...
http://www.rembrandtfilms.com/