>>1
Oh, yes, clearly. Though the Kangaroo is an Australian animal, it looks like the director chose to give him Black African facial features here. Although she says that the model for his face was Adriano Celentano in the 1980 film "The Taming of the Scoundrel". To me, the scowling facial close-ups make the kangaroo look like a not-very-smart bully, and his genteel voice (once he finally speaks) does not seem to fit. But I guess the director likes the type, and she says (in that article) that the duck is like herself.
The portrait on the wall is of Vladimir Vysotsky, an excellent Soviet musician and actor who died young due to ruining his health with heavy alcohol, tobacco and drug use. He was meant to be the original voice for the wolf in "Nu, pogodi". He once starred in an excellent film ("How Czar Peter the Great Married Off His Moor", for which I made subtitles some years ago) where he played in blackface as Pushkin's African great-grandfather.

Another thing I noticed is that as soon as the Kangaroo agrees to allow the duck to tag along and sets off, the duck immediately breaks all the promises she made; she ditches the socks and cigars, and dances all over him instead of staying on the end of his tail as he asked. I guess the subtext here is "make whatever silly promises are necessary to get the other party to commit, because you'll never need to actually keep them"?

In my own opinion, the theme of this film is about inter-racial marriages in an open society. And here is a short article about it !

This honestly seems more like an American cartoon of the time to me. Besides the visual style, it's the heavily religious framing, and the focus on entertainment without worrying about any deeper moral or idea. I guess controls on the periphery were less stringent.

Dyozhkin's original drawings were notoriously "rough", and could look quite different in the end based on how they were polished up. I think this art direction team was one of the less successful ones (while those who handled his hockey films were among the best).

Another excellent adaptation of this tale was made by Roman Kachanov, director of "Cheburashka" and "Secret of the Third Planet": The Last Petal (1977). Unlike this one, it stays true to the ending of the original story and the girl does not get an extra magical flower at the end.

The whole Leningrad animation scene that seems to have started in the 1980s (at Lenfilm and Lennauchfilm) is very poorly documented on animator.ru, and I found it impossible to find out anything about this film or its director beyond that which can be read in the credits of the film itself.

It's a shame, since the early biographies of some important directors started there (such as Konstantin Bronzit).

>>2
Yes, it should be more than one Ukrainian song. Probably the lyrics describe the story...

I like both animated versions of this story, though they have quite a different feel. The 1977 one focuses more on the slightly unsettling otherworldly aspect of Silver Hoof, while this one focuses more on music, charm and friendship. Perhaps the 1977 one is a stronger film, on the whole. This one stylistically reminds me a lot of Vladimir Degtyaryov's puppet films.

This one is also a bit closer to the original story in some ways - for example, in that Kokovanya's main house is not directly in the deep forest, but he goes to stay at another, "hunter's hut" to search for Silver Hoof, and initially doesn't want to take the little girl along.

>>1
Which song do you mean? There is more than one. They are in Ukrainian, I think, but I also am not sure how to find the specific names and recordings. Perhaps a specialist in Ukrainian folk song might be able to...

I love the format of these short loops, and I hope there are more that will be made. They remind of the loops that were often used in animation of the early 1930 - for example, in Tsar Duranday (1934).

It's like a hybrid art form between painting and full-scale animation. Paintings that move, but nevertheless keep showing the same thing.

Also, Stas Santimov is clearly someone who feels and thinks deeply about the art he makes, and this makes a strong impression (whether or not I agree with every single one isn't the point - I value the honesty and conscientiousness).