0) The Beginning

So, I’m about to do something very weird. We all know Disney, right? We’ve all watched and re-watched “The Little Mermaid,” “The Lion King,” “Snow white and Seven Dwarfs” and “Aladdin” at some point in our childhoods. And we all know that on the other side of the planet Hayao Miyazaki was creating “Spirited Away,” “Howl’s Moving Castle” and “My Neighbor Totoro,” with anime always being the main alternative to the Disney/Warner Brothers/Pixar style. Well, apparently, in betwe...en these two worlds existed a third one, which for over 60 years had been creating tons and tons of animated pictures. And, apparently, this world remained largely undiscovered by people from outside post-Soviet area. No fan pages, no academic researches or documentary films were ever dedicated to it. Which is sad. Which I want to change, if possible. Call it nostalgia, call it patriotism, call it the excess of free time, but I’m about to start on a series of posts about Soviet animation. I feel terrible that most of my foreign friends (and a lot of my Slavic friends as well) are absolutely unfamiliar with these precious little artistic masterpieces. I feel terrible for their creators, who put a part of their souls into these films, and never got the deserved credit. I feel terrible for myself, because so few people know something that was an integral part of my childhood. I have prepared a list of lesser known, but undeniably beautiful cartoons, which I’m going to post, with English subs whenever possible, and write a short description and history of each. I don’t know, if anyone will read it or watch it, but I hope some of you will. And I hope you’ll like them, and share them with others, and make them a little more popular. Thanks <3