Nutcracker - Russian Animation
 

I´m back. And I bear gifts.
In the spirit of the christmas season, here is a old russian cartoon basing on Tschaikowskys ballet "The Nutcracker".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yequaAxBysg
If you want to skip to the shrinking scene skip to ca. 13:50 (I´d watch the whole thing thou, its beautifully animated).

Re: Nutcracker - Russian Animation
 

Such a crude art style. Very depersonalized and hard to look at.

Re: Nutcracker - Russian Animation
 

Hah.

Re: Nutcracker - Russian Animation
 

I could be a communist cartoonist! If only I was living in Moscow in the 1970s and was the best friend of some bureaucrat who was giving out the jobs. And could keep my mouth shut. Or maybe not.

Re: Nutcracker - Russian Animation
 

In Soviet Russia, cartoon draws YOU.

Re: Nutcracker - Russian Animation
 

Yay! Thanks for posting and glad to see you under your old user! :)

Re: Nutcracker - Russian Animation
 

Then there's this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX6iYzDxrZ4

(Not Russian)

Re: Nutcracker - Russian Animation
 

I disagree, if you look closely you´ll see how fluent the animation is. Just because you are unfamiliar with the art style and you can´t wank to it doesn´t make it crude.
Your ignorance is showing. In the Soviet Union and other eastern block states cartoons and illustrations of children books were one of the few areas of art were artist enjoyed very little restriction by censorship and were creativity could flourish (possible more than in the west where creativity was restricted by target groups and sales), so there (and are still some) were some incredible illustrators out there.

Re: Nutcracker - Russian Animation
 

Was this made by the same Russian animated studio that made the Snow Queen in the 1950s?

Re: Nutcracker - Russian Animation
 

I DID look closely - it's quite necessary due to the lack of close ups. The most inbetweens seem to go where they are easy, rather than where they are useful. Clara's leg is fully animated when she kicks the mice's ladder down, but her face is just one ambiguous drawing when she should be reacting in amazement.

Clara shrinks and the camera cuts away for a full 10 seconds before we get to see her react, and then it's such a distant shot we can hardly get a reading. She is supposed to be the viewpoint character so how she feels about this is vital. (Compare with danielsangeo's clip.) In the russian version the mice are much better drawn and more emotionally comprehensible then Clara despite being the bad guys. It's a struggle to get any emotion out of what is going on.

Re: Nutcracker - Russian Animation
 

It's possible that Clara isn't the focus. ;)

Re: Nutcracker - Russian Animation
 

Yes she is. "Audience surrogate" is another name for this. She is in every scene (except for when the prince is telling her a story) It's a standard structure in storytelling.

I watched some more of it and she does get some facial animation at first. But not too much. The king gets more, and he is only in a flashback.